Files copying - date and owner... problems

[lmhelp]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for reading my post.

I have some data on a "Windows Server 2003" machine I put there
temporarily (quite a big amount of data: 44.8 GB).

I have copied them back on my Samba server (Debian Lenny hosts the server).

I have had two different types of problems:

1) Date problem:
    ----------------
    some very "old" files which I hadn't touched for an eternity (or so :))
    have had their date changed to say 2009/10/07 (7th of October 2009, the
    day I copied the data from the Windows to the Lenny server)
    which is not normal and which is very problematic.
    For example:
    - on the Windows server, there is a file <foo.ext> which date is 2007/06/04
    - on the Samba server, after copying it, its date is 2009/10/07.
    (I am talking about the "Date Modified" as it is named on Windows machines).

2) Owner and owner group problem:
    --------------------------------------
    I was logged as <user1> on the Windows 2003 server.
    <user1> is a Samba user (declared on the Samba server,
    member of the "/etc/samba/smbpasswd" file).
    So, if I understood well the meaning of the Samba config. file:
    normally when a file is copied on the server, its owner is <user1>
    and its owner group is "domadm".
    Some files have had their owner and owner group set to "root" preventing
    as a result <user1> to write them.

    Here is my "/etc/samba/smb.conf" config. file to check what I said before:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [global]
      workgroup = <workgroup_name>
      server string = %h Samba server
      log level = 1
      log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
      max log size = 1000
      socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY
      logon path =
      logon home =
      domain logons = Yes
      os level = 128
      preferred master = Yes
      domain master = Yes
      remote browse sync = yes

    [<share_name>]
      comment = <share_name>
      path = /<share_path>/<share_name>
      force group = domadm
      read only = No
      create mask = 0664
      directory mask = 0775
      guest ok = Yes
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can you tell me if I misconfigured something?
If I should add someting to my config. file to avoid such problems?
Do you think what happened was a Samba server malfunctioning?

Thank you for your help and all the best,
--
Lmhelp

[lmhelp]

Hi again,

I am sorry to come back here with my problem but
I didn't get any response to my previous post...
Maybe my post wasn't clear enough or too long? :)

It is "just" that, when copying files at date D and time T
from Windows server to Samba server, SOME files times
(not all of them) have been set to time T and date D.
Which is abnormal isn't it?

I also had SOME files (not all of them) which owner and
owner group were set to (root, root) instead of
(current_win_smb_logged_user, forced_smb_conf_group).

Do you think this is because a large amount of files
were copied? I mean, if this is a Samba bug, isn't it worth
reporting it?
Do you think I should add something to my config. file?

If you cannot answer don't worry :) I won't post again with
this topic, I am just trying so see if there is someone around
who would have a little idea...

Thanks for reading and all the best,
--
Lmhelp

[lmhelp]

Hi,

I did a small test.
I copied a small directory (39 MB) from Windows server to Samba server.
Apart from the directories, files haven't had their date changed.

I am led to think errors can happen when a large amount of files are being
copied from the Windows server to the Samba server...
... not only date errors but also file's owner and owner group errors.

All the best,
--
Lmhelp

[John M. Drescher]

> Hi,
>
> I did a small test.
> I copied a small directory (39 MB) from Windows server to Samba server.
> Apart from the directories, files haven't had their date changed.
>
> I am led to think errors can happen when a large amount of files are being
> copied from the Windows server to the Samba server...
> ... not only date errors but also file's owner and owner group errors.
>

I can tell you neither of these are normal behavior with samba. I have
never seen this in the 7+ years that I have used samba on my network
at work. We have millions of files and > 20TB of data on samba shares.

John
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[lmhelp]

Hi!

Thank you for your answer.

Maybe this is the way I copy files which is not right?
On the Windows machine, I open two Windows Explorers:
- one points to the root directory of the data I want to copy
  (the "source" Explorer),
- the other one points to the Samba server target directory
  (the "target" Explorer).
Then I simply select all the files in the "source" Explorer
and drag and drop the whole thing on the "target" Explorer.
What do you think about it?
Is is the way you usually proceed?
If not, how do you copy files to your Samba server?

Thank you for your help and all the best,
--
Lmhelp

[John M. Drescher]

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:44 AM, lmhelp <lmbox@...> wrote:

>
> Hi!
>
> Thank you for your answer.
>
> Maybe this is the way I copy files which is not right?
> On the Windows machine, I open two Windows Explorers:
> - one points to the root directory of the data I want to copy
>  (the "source" Explorer),
> - the other one points to the Samba server target directory
>  (the "target" Explorer).
> Then I simply select all the files in the "source" Explorer
> and drag and drop the whole thing on the "target" Explorer.
> What do you think about it?
> Is is the way you usually proceed?
> If not, how do you copy files to your Samba server?
>

That should not make any difference at all. I have done copies in many
different ways and I have never seen this behavior.

Are you using an anti virus program on the linux server? Any chance
some other program windows or linux is accessing these files?

John
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[lmhelp]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer.

John M. Drescher wrote:

That should not make any difference at all. I have done copies in many
different ways and I have never seen this behavior.

Ok.

Are you using an anti virus program on the linux server?

No, I have no antivirus program on the Linux server.

Any chance some other program windows or linux is accessing
these files?

Well, no. One of these files for instance was an accountancy archive.
Its owner and owner group were incorrectly set to (root, root).

Thanks and all the best,
--
Lmhelp

[John M. Drescher]

>> Any chance some other program windows or linux is accessing
>> these files?
>>
> Well, no. One of these files for instance was an accountancy archive.
> Its owner and owner group were incorrectly set to (root, root).
>

For that I would enable logging in samba so you with the help of the
mailing list can attempt to debug this.

John
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[lmhelp]

Are you talking about the "log level" "smb.conf" option?
Which log level is the most appropriate?

The problem is that, I have to reproduce the problem.
When it happened it was during the night: I had launched
the copying during the night.
When I arrived in the morning I had no error message.
Only afterwards a colleague told me he couldn't
access some files...

I have tried to do the copying again and this time I've got
some access denies that I can't explain.

So I'll try to see what's wrong with it.

Thank you and all the best,
--
Lmhelp

[John M. Drescher]

> Are you talking about the "log level" "smb.conf" option?
Yes

> Which log level is the most appropriate?
>
I believe 10 is a good choice unless it is causing a performance problem.

John
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[lmhelp]

Thank you.
--
Lmhelp