New Files on CIFS Don't Immediately Appear

[prellwitzchilinski]

We have a number of CIFS volumes configured on our NetApp device which serve as the central file storage for our 30 person office.  Over the course of the 4 months since we transitioned from using a traditional HP server with Windows 2008 as our file server, there have been a few incidents where a file is posted to a volume on the NetApp, but doesn't become visible to other users for a long period of time (ranging roughly from 15-60 minutes).  There have been two specific instances that I have observed:

• Our networked copy machines serve as scanners.  When a user scans a document, the file is automatically transfered via FTP to a folder on one of the shares.  Multiple times I've observed that batches of scanned files don't appear immediately in the shared folder, but show up eventually.

• A user generating video files from Adobe Premiere copied exported MP4 files to a shared folder so that another user could review them.  The files were visible in the folder on the creator's workstation, but did not appear for the reviewer until a long period of time later.

I believe that this is only occuring on Windows 7 workstations (all of them x64), but may also have been a problem on an old XP machine (but I'm not 100% sure about this).  All users are on site.

What might be causing this issue, and are there any steps I can take (either on the NetApp or end-user workstations) so that this doesn't occur again?

Thank you very much in advance!

[shaunjurr]

Hi,

Just one thought at the moment: are you using vscan functionality?  If so, check your messages logs on the filer and the logs on the vscan server.

[prellwitzchilinski]

Thanks shaunjurr.  We're using Kaspersky enterprise products in the environment, which do include active file scanning.  I've checked quarantine folders, and don't see any indication that it's causing any trouble.  That said, we have had other problems with Kaspersky in the past, so I wouldn't rule it out.  If the issue arises again, I'll try a quick disable to see if that resolves it.

In the meantime, any other possibilities?

[dandillharsch]

We've seen this as well, both with copiers pushing scanned documents to cifs shares as well as windows machines saving things into folders and for a time others could not see (even though they were there).

Would be interested in the solution (or reason).

[dominicb]

Interesting. Is the share mapped with Netbios or FQDN?

I wonder if this is related to name resolution. Try with FQDN and with IP, see if it makes a difference how you are mapping the share.

Also:

- which OnTap version are you using?

- Do you have SMB2 enabled?

[dandillharsch · Accepted solution]

Some info that may be pertinent:

There's a thread here that discusses this issue and appears to be possibly an issue/feature with the SMB2 protocol on the client side:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/947489ae-dc86-45f0-ad5e-463a62e1d59f

My next step is to try setting the DirectoryCacheLifetime key to zero on a client to see if that makes a difference:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686200%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

[prellwitzchilinski]

Thanks for the thoughts, Dominic...

Share is mapped with Netbios.  Don't believe I've tested with FQDN, but have definitely checked using the IP address with no success.  Will check FQDN next time.

We're using OnTap 7.3.6 and do have SMB2 enabled (from what I've read, there are issues with disabling).

[prellwitzchilinski]

Thanks dandillharsch... I had found those exact threads as well.  It sounded like disabling SMB2 wasn't the best move, but I did adjust the DirectoryCacheLifetime key on one workstation (I had to create the key, actually) and so far haven't seen the problem return.  That said, it happens so intermittently that it's hard to tell.  I've just added the key on another workstation that seems to have the issue more frequently and will monitor whether it happens again.  If not, perhaps that'll be the solution!

[dandillharsch]

Hey how did changing that key go for you?  Did that resolve the problem?

[treeski999]

I have had the exact same issue when running a Windows 2008 R2 + SP1 guest VM as a fileserver, even when running from local DAS, so I don't think it is a NetApp specific issue.  Just found the DirectoryCacheLifetime = 0 hint, gonna try that.