Win7 Offline Files sync error after upgrade to Lion Server 10.7.2

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Win7 Offline Files sync error after upgrade to Lion Server 10.7.2

Symptom: client is a Win7 laptop, the server is Mac OS X 10.7.3 Lion Server with SMB and AFP shares. Win7 Offline Files stopped working after I upgraded Snow Leopard (non-server version) to Lion Server 10.7.2. After updating to 10.7.3, the problem persists. When syncing, it gives thounsands of error like this: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. WinXP clients are fine with the Offline Files function though.

I Googled and studied online for several days now and it might be related to the "Oppurtunistic Locking", or "Oplocks" for short, in the SMB protocol. Since Apple has re-written Samba, there's no "smb.conf" anymore to change the Oplocks setting. Maybe it's possible to change the setting in "com.apple.smb.server.plist"?

From the Internet:

1. Oplocks should be DISABLED on the server if there is any other file sharing protocol (AFP, etc.) other than SMB.

2. Offline Files will NOT work properly if Oplocks is disabled on the server side.

3. It was possible to config oplocks setting in smb.conf in Mac OS X versions prior to Lion but now there's no such config file.

My Question:

1. Does anyone else have similar problems?

2. Is it related to the Oppurtunistic Locking thing?

3. Is Oppurtunistic Locking enabled or disabled in Lion Server by default?

4. If it's related to Oplocks, how can I change the setting on the server?

5. I've noticed that the authentication from Windows PCs to the SMB share on the Lion Server is much slower then in SL. Could this somehow be related to my problem?

Thanks for your time! :-D

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Lion Server

Posted on Feb 20, 2012 6:24 AM

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Answer 1

Otterwx Author

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Mar 2, 2012 8:12 AM in response to Otterwx

No one? There are more problems...

1. Athentication from a Windows PC is extremely slow (> 5 sec)

2. Whenever I open an Office doc, it always says "locked by another user...". If I select "get notified when the original copy is available", after about 30 sec or so, I'll get a notification saying that it's possible to be edited and the doc needs to be opened again.

3. After 10.7.3 update, Offline Files in WinXP cease to work completely! Now we have to abandon Offlie Files feature for all Windows computers.

Apple, please, please debug Samba in Lion!

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Answer 2

Otterwx Author

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Mar 4, 2012 1:12 AM in response to Otterwx

Problem continues...

When opening a PowerPoint file, it's impossible to open sometimes. I can only copy the file from the server to a local location and then open it. Even if the file can be opened, the file become read-only after a while. I can only save as another copy...

What's wrong with Samba sharing in Lion???

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Answer 3

Apr 12, 2012 6:39 AM in response to Otterwx

Otterwx,

I am having these exact same issues. I have 3 Win7 boxes and 1 XP box connecting to a 10.7.3 server.

The xp box is fine.

The Win7 boxes randomly have the issue, nothing is consistent. Deleting or copying anything to the server is slow, but only from the Win7 boxes. I will mention a restart of the server does seem to fix speed of connection for a bit of time.

I haven't had an abundance of time to resolve this, so at this point the end users just put up with it.

Any luck to date on your end?

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Answer 4

Otterwx Author

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Apr 12, 2012 6:50 AM in response to dmeindiana

No, had to tell my Win7 and XP users to totally abandon the Offline Files for now. Some of them are not happy since they can't work offline now. Luckily I've asked our central IT at my university to open up SMB ports in the firewall rules so that PCs can access the server through SMB with a VPN connection.

Have to wait for Mountain Lion Server and see...

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Answer 5

Otterwx Author

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Nov 6, 2012 8:05 AM in response to Otterwx

No luck in Mountain Lion Server...

Every SMB problem presists in OS X 10.8. It seems like the kernel code for SMBX is not changed in Mountain Lion... My god! Can't Apple just fix this?

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Answer 6

Nov 8, 2012 6:02 PM in response to Otterwx

I have just spent 1.5hrs on the phone to Apple Enterprise Support...they:-

* confirmed that oplocks are ENABLED by default in 10.7 and 10.8

* suggested that there are SMBX settings which may be able to be adjusted to address the issue I am experiencing (non-consistent connection from Win client to OSX server...was working fine with 10.6)

BUT...

* they do not have any information available which tells me how to adjust the settings.

* if I want this information, I need to pay for a support case (approx $700).

It's pretty disappointing.

The bottom line is, the OSX server software doesn't work as intended...so they should fix it or provide info on how I can fix it.

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Answer 7

Feb 20, 2013 7:09 PM in response to gadgethead

Any luck getting the info on SMBX parameters like OPLOCKS ? This is apparently causing an issue with Autodesk Revit. I am resorting to installing SMBUP.

There is an article that describes this method for altering the Lion smbd configuration parameters for honoring ACLs:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server AclsEnabled -bool NO

from this article

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4149

and this:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/macosxsig/blog/2011/08/enable-logging-with-107-smb x-w.html

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Answer 8

cadmin

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Jul 30, 2013 10:59 AM in response to Paul Rauschelbach

Hi Paul,

I am curious to know if ebabling the ACLs for the SMB sharepoints improved the condition with Autodesk Revit. I have attempted run our share with SMBUp with no improvement.

-c

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Answer 9

Jul 30, 2013 11:47 AM in response to cadmin

This didn't work for me. Nor did upgrading to Mountain Lion 10.8.4.

The workaround we have finally utilized in this case was to purchase an inexpensive NAS for the shared Revit files. Not ideal. Feedback submmitted. Please also add your voice to the feedback system.

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