Samba and Large File Copies stop working

[GreenJelly]

Basics
Ok, Im relatively new to Linux, and am having problems finding debug information for this problem. So any help on where to find debug information would be great

I am running SAMBA with work groups enabled. The service is slow to respond (the My Network takes awhile finding this machine) . After a few seconds (5-10) it lists this machine. After a fresh reboot of the Linux machine the drive is accessible and I'm able to start coping files. 10+ minutes into the transfer it abnormally stops. All remote drive access to this machine then becomes unavailable, and sometimes the machine stops showing up.

I figure the netbios and Samba is crashing, or the file system, or the network... I don't really know. So where do I start debugging and fixing this issue.

Additional Information

BTW Samba is included in SUSE (though it maybe an extra install option). There is a tool to set it up, though I found this to be less then what I wanted. So with some help with the Gentoo IRC (they have the best support, just dont tell them your running SuSe... hehe), I got it up and running using a custom setup with a separate login DB.

I then created a directory under home (which is on my Mirrored Boot drive) and a new directory under root (which is on my RAID-5 array). I then set my permissions on the "/Movies" drive to include the users group. I then created a symlink on the "/home/Media/" (which is part of the boot Mirrored drive. I also have "/home/Media/Music" and a "/home/Media/Video"!

 

[MRD]

That's very odd. Are you sure it's samba? Could it be something else, like a flaky network?

Have you tried moving large files from one pc to another using nfs?

 

[dribblesnort]

That does sound a bit like a network or router issue...

 

[GreenJelly]

The problem is, that Windows is smart enough to retry the transfer.

And even if my switch is broken (which it could be, and I will be testing it at another location), I will have problems diagnosing the issue. I will see if I can get a new switch.

I guess its time to plug a different switch into it.

GJ

 

[MRD]

Try an nfs transfer, or a windows to windows transfer to test the network.

 

[GreenJelly]

It seems windows is usually smart enough to restart the service that fails... However there is another clue here, which is when I am streaming files from my Vista Ultimate machine (the X6800) -> the HTPC, after about 10-20 minutes the stream ends, locking up the movie. This is fixed by closing Media Center (which usually is stuck, but not locked up aka will recover), however it sets up a situation where I have to restart the movie, search back to my original spot, then play (which then stops again)

I am amazed that Samba wouldn't recover from such an error. One thing I can do to test Samba's abilities (or someone else) is to start a transfer from windows->Linux and then yank the Ethernet out. This will insure a disconnect, and see if samba recovers after the net has been restored.

There must be a solution to fix Samba's instability, since it is always possible for packets and other data to be lost on a network. I have shut down IPv6 on all of my windows machines (and the Linux machines) since I figure my old linxsys firewall probably doesnt support it (and probably the Time Warner box to).

My network is configured as Monster/HTPC/Beast (Linux) all connect to the Gigabyte Switch, and then that Switch connects to the Linksys Firewall which is connected to my Wii and the Internet.

Is there a way to do away with SAMBA, yet keep its file sharing abilities. Obviously this would have to include the ability to stream information over from one machine to another. Unfortunately I am using DHCP on my router, but I could set a machine to a static IP address.

 

[MRD]

It sounds like you have network connectivity issues unrelated to samba. I would try to fix them, rather than trying to blame samba.

If you want to be able to transfer files between two linux machines, you can use nfs, but if you have network issues, there is no guarantee this will be any better.

There are also other network options out there like parallel port networking over null modem cables or even using weird stuff like appletalk (I think this can be done over non apple pc's... but ugh).

Honestly, the solution is to fix your hardware problems, not to avoid them.

I suspect you have a flaky switch, router, cable, or network adapter somewhere in the mix.

 

[GreenJelly]

I will have a response to the router issue if thats what it is, because I will be switching routers (to a 100mbs) later today.

Unless this 100% fixes my issues, the next step would be to check my MoBo's network cards.

What bothers me is that Samba encounters an error in the network, and then just stops working. It doesnt seem to recover very fast (or at all). This isnt very reassuring.

 

[dribblesnort]

I will have a response to the router issue if thats what it is, because I will be switching routers (to a 100mbs) later today.

Unless this 100% fixes my issues, the next step would be to check my MoBo's network cards.

What bothers me is that Samba encounters an error in the network, and then just stops working. It doesnt seem to recover very fast (or at all). This isnt very reassuring.

You are expecting a software program to recover from hardware problems?

If thats the case, I want to know why Windows won't continue to work after my PSU died.

 

[GreenJelly]

The issue seems to be the 1000/100/10mbps Ethernet Switch, because I replaced it with a 100/10mps switch and haven't had a issue. The problem may be that one of my devices starts to cause errors when put into a 1000 mbps situation, but the fact that this occurs after 10+ minutes suggests to me that the gigabyte switch is overheating.

My statement was based on the idea that no network errors should cause long term shut down of a service. If I send garbage down an either net line (assuming its doesn't fry the either net card), Samba seems to crash/shutdown permanently or at least for an extended period of time. This of course doesn't make me happy. In the perfect world I would have it recover as soon as possible.

With that said, at least the machine doesn't go to the blue screen of death that occurred when Vista was feeding video to my HTPC.

I had a hard drive that died shortly after purchasing it. It was in the Windows Vista machine, and Windows ground to a halt, with constant attempts to get/send IO requests to the drive. This was relentless, and Windows Vista never gave up. If the BIOS didnt come up with a SMART error, I would have been banging my head on my machine trying to figure out why my machine ran like a 286.

Stupid OSes.

No mater what people say, Microsoft XP is an amazing product. I'm not putting Linux down, just stating that both have there advantages. Vista, has the potential of becoming an amazing system, though it definitely has to mature. I will never leave Windows for my desktop environment.

 

[MRD]

Personally, I'd prefer a system that let me know that my hardware was failing than one that just worked around it and covered up failing hardware. That's just my preference though. To each his own. Did Windows XP even through warnings? If not, then I'd consider that a serious design flaw.

 

[splat]

However there is another clue here, which is when I am streaming files from my Vista Ultimate machine (the X6800) -> the HTPC, after about 10-20 minutes the stream ends, locking up the movie. This is fixed by closing Media Center (which usually is stuck, but not locked up aka will recover), however it sets up a situation where I have to restart the movie, search back to my original spot, then play (which then stops again)

I assume that when you say "Media Center" you mean the program that comes with Windows MCE. If so, then this totally negates your argument about Samba being a horrible piece of software. Also note that Samba is reverse engineered to be compatible with Windows and as such it should be assumed that there are minor "issues" with it that are different from how Windows to Windows transfers over the Network Neighborhood act.

And, if you knew you were having problems with transfers between two Windows computers on the same network, that should have been your first clue that the problem was not caused by Samba.

 

[GreenJelly]

I guess that is reasonable. They did a rather good job now with a stable switch. To bad no one came up with a open source replacement that is good for windows vista, xp, mac, openbsd, linux, etc...

Something that supports file sharing and file streaming.

I haven't tried to stream movies from my linux box, but I will be doing that in the next day or two.

 

[MRD]

I use a samba based file server for my home. I have a 10/100 wired network. I can play full quality DVD video easily over that network to multiple computers at a time from a regular hard drive. I have no problem accessing data from any of the platforms I use. This includes linux (multiple distros), windows (2k and occasionally xp... I don't have it but guests have used it), and even bsd. I haven't used OSX with it and I have never tried Vista in this house (yuck, DRM).

The speed is fine. I have no compatibility problems or stability problems. I use LVM to glue multiple disks together to make one big volume on the file server and then mount this through samba.

I've had great luck with samba really. No complaints at all.

 

[splat]

I use a samba based file server for my home. I have a 10/100 wired network. I can play full quality DVD video easily over that network to multiple computers at a time from a regular hard drive. I have no problem accessing data from any of the platforms I use. This includes linux (multiple distros), windows (2k and occasionally xp... I don't have it but guests have used it), and even bsd. I haven't used OSX with it and I have never tried Vista in this house (yuck, DRM).

The speed is fine. I have no compatibility problems or stability problems. I use LVM to glue multiple disks together to make one big volume on the file server and then mount this through samba.

I've had great luck with samba really. No complaints at all.

i agree, and I have used it with OS X, works great. The most difficult is the windows computers because people can sometimes have multiple software firewalls installed without the their knowledge, but that's really their fault and not that of windows.

 

[illuminati11_13]

i agree, and I have used it with OS X, works great. The most difficult is the windows computers because people can sometimes have multiple software firewalls installed without the their knowledge, but that's really their fault and not that of windows.

Not NFS? Or do you mean to communicate with windows computers?

 

[splat]

my gf's laptop is windows, so i keep it Samba to make it easiest for her.

 

[MRD]

NFS has the advantage of handling permissions much better. I'd use NFS on a purely linux/bsd type net, but I use samba if I need windows to be able to access it. Unfortunately, the windows networking protocols do not have as sophisticated a system for handling permissions as NFS does.

I'm not sure how the two compare in raw speed, that would be interesting. I'm guessing not a big difference.