Q: Server File Sharing unstable on mac and windows network on Mavericks and OSX Server 3.0

Hi Bonyo,

How are you finding SMBUp? I had a chat to the developer on Twitter who seemed very helpful.

I was tempted to wait until the next release as people are mentioning (in this thread) that they are seeing a difference?

Did you have to manually add users into SMBUp? Or did you find a way to tie them into Open Directory so they could use the pre-existing credentials?

Chris

SMBup is very reliable no drop outs in connection and etc. We use it for our QB on Windows machines and is as reliable as it can be. The Proccess of seting it up is not as nice as using server and creating accoutns but it can be done. SMBup uses local accounts so you will have to create a root folder and give permission to local account (preferably limited acount) which then will be used on the windows machine to log in.

Sorry for all the questions Bonyo, just relieved to see that there could potentially be light at the end of the tunnel. I've taken a quick look at the install process and see what you mean about it not being as polished as the old SMB configs or Apple's built in Server file sharing.

I suppose to make life easy I could make 2-3 local accounts - Low Access / Medium Access / Management for example and set different passwords for each perhaps. Rather than adding 20-30 new accounts.

Is SMBUp SMB1 protocol by default? Again, sorry for the questions, the documentation side of that platform is.. rather thin.

Yes you will create just 2-3 low profile accounts otherwise is too big of a pain. I have it set only for QB which is handled by 1 main user and that is all. Then you go and add it to file sharing in server app but remove SMB check option.It is helpful this SMB folder to be separate from the rest so you d not mess them up. Add the local accounts to this window and close it. You will be all set. You can still after this go and use subfolder system ans use Server app to make them read only or full access for those users. I have used it for so long without issues that I do not remeber the passwords for the local user accounts anymore Hopefully I have them written down in my log

Haha, I'll take a look at doing this over the weekend. It's a live environment and they are having a world of pain currently. Unable to copy multiple files, unable to save when a file has been open to long etc..

I wasn't aware that it tied into Server.app? I thought it disabled File Sharing completely and ran SMBUp as a stand alone in it's place? And you managed it all from the SMBUp interface?

Are you on Twitter/Skype at all? Would love to discuss further than post results here for others to see.

Twitter @artinshots

Yes it ties with Server app. You just do not control the protocol itself from it.

We are also living in that same world of pain.

We found this http://blog.helloyama.com/post/77813860132/replacing-the-os-x-10-9-mavericks-smb -stack-with

Since we run a Linux file server and do not share any folders on the OSX clients I am thinking its a better solution for us than SMBup.  If anyone has experience please advise.

The good news is we filed a bug report to apple and they actually responded to us after browsing the site we created http://macsmbissues.com

Hah, just watched your KeyNote Youtube clip, that is exactly the problem we're having whether it be with MS documents, InDesign files or Keynote.  The various bits of software just display the communication errors in different ways it would seem.

Great site, I'll keep tabs on that. We too have a fault/bug logged with Apple but we just constantly get asked for log feedback and told to wait.

Hello everybody!

A few days ago I spoke to one of my customers and we agreeded that my customer can not live with all this file server trouble any longer. If Apple did not releases a fixed SMB service within the next month we switch to a Windows server.

This customer (dental practice) will be the first one in a row of upcoming server updates waiting in line (still at 10.6.8). We support at least 30 server installations that are concered by this problem. At least every server is connected to 5-6 Macs. So Apple will loose at least round about 200 OS X installations.

We will see what 10.9.3 brings

I don't like it but I think Apple is not interessed in business customers anymore.

Very very sad.

There's no reason why you have to replace all the macs. Just replace their file server. Depending on needs a file server as basic as Freenas or a dedicated Synology unit will keep your customers from needing to buy Windows. SMB access by mac clients is fine. It's only the server side that *****.

Hello mdporter!

The practice managment software has its own requests and one is that database server and file server has to be the same machine.

This software is running on the mac platform since 10.0 but for 10.9 the manufacture removed support for OS X as server!

Sorry but it is only Apples fault - they have no money for quality any more. They need it for rounded iOS dial buttons

I tried to get around this error for the last 6 month - now we are exhausted.

Bye,

eweri

Hello!

At the beginning of this week I setup a testing enviroment with a server, the practice managment software and a few virtual machines running Windows 7 to reproduce the error.

I sent network traces with the error to Apple and today they responded with "Duplicate bug".

They mess around with me.

For everyone who is interessed in:

my bugreport number : 15860282

duplicate bugreport number: 16658359

I opened the bug on 20th January this year. And my customers are still suffering.

Bye,

eweri

I wouldn't put to much faith in Apple Support & bug reporting. Over the years, it's been hit & miss if anything I've ever posted get fixed. Sometimes they do, but many times they don't. I've had a bug open dealing with something in iOS 7 since beta 1 and the only responses I've ever received have been "please install the latest build and let us know..." (and it's been that way through beta 1 all the way up to the GM for iOS 7.1.1).

I can live with that, because it's not mission critical, but with the state of Mavericks Server, it's the most dissapointed I've been with Apple tech in a long time (and lets be honest, OS X Server has never been up-to-par with typical Apple-like standards—it's always been half baked).

Anyway, I've also had a server-related bug (AFP peformance in Mavericks Server) open for months now. At first, it was a bunch of "run this test, run that test" and each time I'd come back with the same results—AFP in Mavericks Server is broken (which is annoying because AFP was my fallback after realizing SMB was, basically, unusable)—and after I provided the last set of test results, I haven't heard a peep in over a month (and there's not been a mention of any "fixes" for these issues in any of the beta seeds). After the Vista-like release of Lion Server, and now the pre-release-like release of Mavericks Server, I can only count my blessings that Mountain Lion Server works "well enough" that I don't have to downgrade back to 10.6 Server. So, we're now stuck in ML Server and I honestly can't imagine things getting any better (with Mavericks Server or whatever comes next...).

Kristin, I think the same:

We never installed Lion Server or Mountain Lion Server until we were forced by circumstances.

Mavericks Server looked promissing as most services could be configured again. Now we are forced to update 10.6.8 servers but at the moment Mavericks server is not an option.

1. The daemons smbd and afpd are buggy (I think they are the same binaries for Mavericks client and Mavericks server).

2. After sometime Mavericks can not start new network connections you have to reboot to get it back into a working state.

3. Apple Remote Desktop does not work with Maverisk over narrow band VPN

But the "Standard" user does not determine this bugs as they only happen with a reasonable network load and/or an uptime of about 10-30 days.

I am still saying: if you need something reliable do not use Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks - still hope that 10.9.3 gets into a state 10.6.8 has.

Now I have to learn how to install and configure Windows Server 2012 R2

Bye,

eweri

So are we hoping that OS X 10.9.3 update on the Server fixes this, because 10.9.3 beta on the client didn't help at all? Or is there a Server update like 3.1.2 that we are looking for to be the fix?

Just moved to new Mac Mini with Pegasus RAID and would sure hate to have to go back to the XServe with 10.6.8 on it, but this is an untenable situation.