BNelson06

Q: File Server/Locking Files

Good Morning All,

 

Here's a little background information. Our entire server environment is virtualized running on vmWare vCenter 5.5 on 3 Dell SAN hosts. Our Mac users (all running v10.11.4) connect to a Red Hat Linux share (v6.7) using SMB. There are practically no permissions on this server - they are all admins and can create/modify/delete folders and files as they see fit. Occasionally, users report that they create folders, and either try to rename them, or move them, and get an error message saying "you can't move this file because you don't have permission" (I apologize for not having the exact wording). We faced this issue once before with users operating on Mavericks, but it seemed resolved (or at least we didn't face it too often) when we upgraded to Yosemite. In the past, we've had users eject and reconnect to the share, and that usually resolves the issue - but we'd like to resolve this for good.

 

With that information, I have 2 questions:

 

1. Is there a recommended file server solution that you have used and works pretty effectively? Should we consider going back to using Windows instead? We are not interested in using a NAS. (Before I was hired, there were big issues with our Macs and Windows servers, but I believe now things are working smoother between the two platforms).

 

2. Has anyone faced this permissions issue before? Do you have any advice or resolutions?

OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 4, 2016 8:29 AM

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Q: File Server/Locking Files

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  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Apr 4, 2016 8:43 AM in response to BNelson06
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Apr 4, 2016 8:43 AM in response to BNelson06

    Hello BNelson06,

    The only thing I can suggest is to wait for this to happen again and collect detailed information about exactly what is going on.

     

    I have seen situations where an OS X client will scramble its connection logic and mount Windows shares read-only. The only solution is to unmount and then reconnect.

     

    But generally, to diagnose this at all, you will need detailed information. This is going to be particularly difficult on an operating system designed to hide those details from you. This kind of use just isn't a priority for Apple anymore. Collect as much information as you can, maybe try out 3rd part solutions like Dave (http://www.thursby.com/products/dave) or SBMUp (http://eduo.info/apps/smbup). Never let end users update until you test in any new version, no matter how small. All Apple software is beta-quality now.