HP HP-UX Common Internet File System User's Guide

CIFS/9000 Server File Locking

Interoperability

Version 1.03 September, 2001

Updates for version 1.03: * Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 – CIFS/9000 Open Mode locking added * Appendix B – CIFS/9000 Open Mode locking added

Eric Roseme

SNSL Advanced Technology Center

E0300

Printed in: U.S.A.

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Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................4

Chapter 2 CIFS/9000 Product Overview.............................................................................5

Chapter 3 File Locking Overview.......................................................................................6

Chapter 4 File Locking Implementations ...........................................................................8

4.1 WINDOWS (CIFS) ....................................................................................................8

4.2 UNIX ......................................................................................................................10

4.3 NFS.........................................................................................................................10

4.4 PC NFS...................................................................................................................11

Chapter 5 CIFS/9000 File Locking Implementation .........................................................12

Chapter 6 CIFS/9000 File Locking Interoperability Examples..........................................16

6.1 WINDOWS ONLY CLIENT ACCESS – Local File System .......................................16

6.2 WINDOWS ONLY CLIENT ACCESS – NFS Mounted File System .........................18

6.3 WINDOWS AND UNIX CLIENT ACCESS – Local File System ...............................20

6.4 WINDOWS AND UNIX CLIENT ACCESS – NFS Mounted File System .................22

6.5 WINDOWS AND UNIX/NFS CLIENT ACCESS – Local and NFS Mounted File

Systems ...........................................................................................................................24

6.6 WINDOWS AND PC-NFS CLIENT ACCESS – Local and NFS Mounted File Systems

6.7 WINDOWS AND CIFS/9000 CLIENT – Local and NFS Mounted File Systems .......28

Chapter 7 CIFS/9000 LOCKING SUMMARY...................................................................30

Chapter 8 CIFS/9000 COMPETITION LOCKING SUMMARY ........................................31

8.1 Network Appliance..................................................................................................32

8.2 EMC Celerra ...........................................................................................................34

8.3 Auspex NeTservices.................................................................................................36

8.4 Veritas File Server Edition ......................................................................................38

8.5 Locking Summary Table..........................................................................................39

Chapter 9 CIFS/9000 File Locking Interoperability Summary..........................................40

Appendix A smb.conf Examples ......................................................................................42

A.1 smb.conf for Windows-Only Access ......................................................................42

A.2 smb.conf for Mixed-Mode Access ..........................................................................43

Appendix B Sales Tool: Locking Technology Examples ...................................................44

B.1 Determine Locking Requirement.........................................................................44

B.2 Byte Range Locking.............................................................................................45

B.3 Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Locks.........................................................46

B.4 Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Enhancement ............................................47

B.5 Competitor’s Claims for NFS Non-Locking Protection ..........................................48

Chapter 1 Introduction

A key feature of HP’s CIFS/9000 product is file server consolidation on a UNIX platform with transparent shared file access between Windows and UNIX clients. A major challenge of shared file access is providing secure, fast access for Windows, UNIX, and mixed client environments. File access security is implemented using file locking schemes typically executed at the file system level and/or application level, but while Windows provides a comprehensive locking model, UNIX and NFS only provide an advisory locking model. The significant differences of the platform locking models results in integration opportunities and issues for CIFS/9000, and these must be clearly identified and addressed for CIFS/9000 potential installations.

Chapter 2 CIFS/9000 Product Overview

CIFS is a file system specification called Common Internet File System, which evolved from Microsoft’s SMB protocol for Windows operating systems. CIFS/9000 is an HP-UX product (based upon Samba version 2.0.6, 2.0.7 in 3/2001, or 2.0.9 in 9/2001) that utilizes the Common Internet File System to provide two major benefits for two platforms. First, the CIFS/9000 Server delivers smooth file and print sharing access to both Windows and UNIX platform clients, but with all of the benefits of a HP-UX operating system. Second, the CIFS/9000 Client delivers HP-UX client access to both Windows and UNIX file servers, and integrated user authentication between HP-UX and Windows domains using NTLM.

CIFS/9000 allows management consolidation of many Windows servers onto a reliable, highly available HP-UX operating system, while still delivering file access to Windows clients utilizing their native CIFS (SMB) protocol. CIFS/9000 also provides a common platform for efficient file sharing from varying client access methods: Windows, UNIX, NFS, or PC/NFS. The versatility of CIFS/9000 allows Windows-only file serving, UNIX-only file serving, or mixed file serving.

To ensure integrity and security of user data files despite the variable client access methods, file locking can be enabled at the file system and/or application level.

Chapter 3 File Locking Overview

File locking is typically initiated by the file system – either by configuration parameters or API and function calls – to prevent data corruption by more than one process accessing a file while it is open in write mode (either dual writes occurring, or reading a file that has since been changed due to a write – “stale data”). There are two important factors to consider when enabling file locking: first – when to use file locking; second – how to lock the file.

File locking provides a security and/or integrity benefit, but the benefit is not free. Locking uses system resources, therefore it can affect performance. In addition, some kinds of locking can actually enhance performance, but expose data to corruption under certain types of access. Also, using file-system -provided file locking can be redundant if data is already locked or managed at the application level, thus using system resources affecting performance for no benefit. Finally, how data is used should partially dictate how files are locked: if a file is to be opened read-only, then locking the file may not make much sense.

HP Sales Force personnel often encounter RFPs that include CIFS/NFS cross-platform file locking as a requirement. It is essential that the TC or SR understand what security and data integrity issues are driving the file locking requirement. Customers often include such requirements without understanding their own environment.

HP-UX 11 CIFS/9000 / NFS File Server & Storage

Files Accessed by

Windows Clients

Shared CIFS/NFS File Access

Files Accessed by

NFS Clients

Locking Needed?Data MgtACLrwxFilename

No data managementNo ACLRead onlyFilename1 No data managementACE on ACLRead/WriteFilename2 PDM, Clearcase, etc…No ACLRead/WriteFilename3 No data managementNo ACLRead/WriteFilename4

YES – Locking Needed

NO NO NO

1. Are there files or directories that will be accessed by both CIFS and NFS?

2. How many files or directories, and what kind of data?

3. Will clients have write access to the files or directories?

4. Are there ACLs on the file or directories that manage client access?

5. Is there a data management application that administers access (Clearcase or PDM server)?

Educating customers about when file locking is required will reduce the possibility of this feature being a lockout for bidding a deal2.

How a file is locked by a file system depends upon the locking features that are invoked (Windows has multiple locking modes), or what platform the file resides upon (Windows or UNIX), or what access method the client is using to open the file. With CIFS/9000 providing file-sharing access to multiple client types, the shared (heterogeneous) access combinations can become confusing. We will start to clarify locking behavior in these combinations by explaining how each access method locks a file on its own file system (homogenous).

See Appendix B

Chapter 4 File Locking Implementations

File systems and pseudo file systems (like PC-NFS) implement autonomous file locking models. These file-locking models are invoked by the particular file system, and do not necessarily interoperate, or even know each other exist. Thus, when multiple client access methods open the same file – even with valid locking procedures for the opening file system – the locks can be ignored, resulting in concurrent file access and likely data corruption. To understand how the different file locking mechanisms interoperate (or do not interoperate), we must first understand how file locking is implemented for homogeneous access on the following file systems:

Windows (CIFS), UNIX (JFS, HFS, etc) NFS, PC-NFS.

4.1 WINDOWS (CIFS)

The Windows file system (using CIFS) utilizes three different file-locking mechanisms:

Mandatory Locking,

Byte-Range Locking, Opportunistic Locking (Oplocks).

MANDATORY LOCKING is invoked at file open by the Windows Createfile API. Locking parameters supplied to Createfile include access mode and share mode.

Access mode defines how an application (caller of Createfile) wants to access the file:

Read: Read access only Write: Write access only Read-Write: Read and Write access

Share mode defines how an application wants to limit or grant concurrent access while it

has the file open, essentially comprising the locking scenario for MANDATORY LOCKS:

Deny-None: Concurrent read and write access allowed Deny-All: No concurrent read or write access allowed Deny-Read: No concurrent read access allowed Deny-Write: No concurrent write access allowed

These are Windows default file locking mechanisms. There are obscure ways to disable mandatory locks, but they should never be disabled (which is why they are obscure). Windows documentation uses the terms “mandatory” and “share mode”. However, it is helpful to think of mandatory share mode locking as “OPEN MODE LOCKING”, because it is initiated during a file open, so subsequent references will use “Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Locking”.

BYTE RANGE LOCKING is invoked programmatically – on a file that is already open - by the Windows LockFile and LockFileEx APIs when a client application wants to lock a region of a file for exclusive access.

LockFile parameters only specify the file name and byte ranges to be locked. Therefore the lock must be exclusive – all other processes are denied access to the specified region of the file. If the region cannot be locked, the API returns immediately – it does not block or wait.

LockFileEx includes a flags parameter that allows the process to wait for a locked region of a file to unlock. It also includes a sharing option that allows another process to read the locked region concurrently but denying write access concurrently.

Byte Range locks are honored unilaterally by Windows and Windows applications that call LockFile and LockFileEx, so a process is guaranteed to have the particular access granted by the API when the call succeeds.

OPPORTUNISTIC LOCKING (Oplocks) is invoked by the Windows file system (as opposed to an API) via registry entries (on the server AND client) for the purpose of enhancing network performance when accessing a file residing on a server. Performance is enhanced by caching the file locally on the client which allows:

Read-ahead: The client reads the local copy of the file, eliminating network latency Write caching: The client writes to the local copy of the file, eliminating network latency Lock caching: The client caches application locks locally, eliminating network latency

The performance enhancement of oplocks is due to the opportunity of exclusive access to the file, even if it is opened with deny-none, because Windows monitors the file’s status for concurrent access from other processes.

Windows defines 4 kinds of Oplocks:

Level1 Oplock - The redirector sees that the file was opened with deny none (allowing concurrent access), verifies that no other process is accessing the file, checks that oplocks are enabled, then grants deny-all read-write exclusive access to the file. The client now performs operations on the cached local file.

If a second process attempts to open the file, the open is deferred while the redirector “breaks” the original Oplock. The Oplock break signals the caching client to write the local file back to the server, flush the local locks, and discard read-ahead data. The break is then complete, the deferred open is granted, and the multiple processes can enjoy concurrent file access as dictated by mandatory or byte-range locking options. However, if the original opening process opened the file with a share mode other than deny-none, then the second process is granted limited or no access, despite the Oplock break.

Level2 Oplock – Performs like a level1 oplock, except caching is only operative for reads. All other operations are performed on the server disk copy of the file.

Filter Oplock – Does not allow write or delete file access.

Batch Oplock – Manipulates file openings and closings.

An important detail is that Oplocks are invoked by the file system, not an application API. Therefore, an application can close an oplocked file, but the file system does not relinquish the Oplock. When the Oplock break is issued, the file system then simply closes the file in preparation for the subsequent open by the second process.

4.2 UNIX

UNIX utilizes 2 kinds of file locking:

Advisory locking Mandatory locking

Both lock types are implemented with the same function calls: fcntl and lockf. fcntl is the POSIX interface (introduced at SVR4), and lockf is provided for backward compatibility. The calling semantics are slightly different, but the functionality is basically the same.

Both functions specify read and/or write locking, and allow for byte-range locks or locking of the entire file. A read lock allows concurrent access for reading, but not writing. A write lock is exclusive.

ADVISORY LOCKING assumes that all processes attempting to access a file participate in the locking protocol by calling the locking functions correctly and honoring the lock status of the file. There is no requirement that a process must adhere to the advisory locking protocol. A process that does not participate in the protocol can obliviously write or read to a file that is locked with locking functions. Therefore there is a significant assumption of risk of data corruption with advisory locking.

MANDATORY LOCKING is implemented with function calls identical to advisory locking. Mandatory locking is then enabled per-file by manipulating the file’s permissions with chmod. To enable a file for mandatory locking, the group-id bit must be set, and the execute bit must be cleared (implying that executable files cannot be locked). Once set, any calls to open, read, or write to a previously locked file are failed by the kernel, regardless of whether the process participates in the file locking protocol. Most UNIX locking scenarios refer to advisory locking protocol. The UNIX mandatory option seems to be rarely utilized, so further references to mandatory locking refer to Windows only.

Note that UNIX does not employ the concept of Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking like Windows does. UNIX locking consists of byte range locking and is strictly programmatic on a previously opened file. Also, UNIX is incapable of sending an oplock break to a client, and therefore cannot interoperate with Windows clients using Opportunistic Locking.

4.3 NFS

File locking for NFS is provided by two cooperating protocols:

Network Lock Manager Network Status Monitor

NETWORK LOCK MANAGER - like UNIX - uses an advisory locking protocol: an NFS server can obliviously grant a client read and/or write access to a file that has already been locked by another client. The NLM assumes that all processes attempting to access a file will follow locking protocol by calling the locking functions correctly and honoring the lock status of the file. The NLM honors read and/or write locking, and allows for byte-range locks or locking of the entire file. A read lock allows nonexclusive concurrent access for reading, but not writing. A write lock is exclusive. If a process is denied access due to a conflict in lock type, it can optionally block until the lock is freed or it can return an error condition.

UNIX advisory locks are propagated to the NFS Network Lock Manager. The UNIX locking process will interoperate with the NLM to implement the fcntl file locking calls via the NFS mount to the actual remote disk file. Thus the file is protected from other UNIX processes that access the file – either locally on the NFS server or via multiple NFS mounts of the same file system – and adhere to the advisory locking protocol.

Note that UNIX/NFS does not employ the concept of Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking like Windows does. UNIX/NFS locking consists of byte range locking and is strictly programmatic on a previously opened file. Also, UNIX/NFS is incapable of sending an oplock break to a client, and therefore cannot interoperate with Windows clients using Opportunistic Locking.

NETWORK STATUS MONITOR provides the lock manager with information on host status.

It monitors the system to ensure that locks will be handled properly if a system crashes while a file is locked. This is referred to as monitored locking. If the server crashes with monitored locks in place, the locks will be reinstated when the server recovers. Conversely, if the client crashes with monitored locks in place, the locks will be automatically freed by the server and must be reinstated by the client when it recovers. Clients have the option of using lock manager without the status monitor in which case the locking is non-monitored. Non-monitor ed locking is provided for client systems that do not support multi-tasking and cannot run both lock manager and status monitor at the same time. In all other cases, monitored locking is preferred.

4.4 PC NFS

PC-NFS implements Byte Range programmatic file locking by interoperating with the server NFS Network Lock Manager. The Windows client will propagate application byte range locks to the UNIX server, where the NLM will interoperate with the UNIX Kernel Lock Manager to actually place the lock on the file. PC-NFS file locking participates in the UNIX advisory locking protocol.

PC-NFS also implements Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking between PC-NFS clients. However, PC-NFS uses NLM to implement the share mode locks, and a Windows client does not. Therefore, PC-NFS does not recognize Windows client Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locks, and vice versa.

Also, PC-NFS is incapable of sending an oplock break to a client, and therefore cannot interoperate with Windows clients using Opportunistic Locking.

PC-NFS testing for this paper was done with WRQ Reflections NFS Connection Software version 7.1.

Chapter 5 CIFS/9000 File Locking Implementation

CIFS/9000 mirrors the Windows file locking mechanisms, using the CIFS (SMB) protocol to provide Windows-equivalen t file locking on a UNIX system for Windows clients (homogenous client access). For Windows client access to files residing on the local UNIX file system, CIFS/9000 utilizes:

Mandatory Share Mode Locking (Open Mode), Byte-Range Locking (programmatic), Opportunistic Locking (Oplocks).

This locking scheme is executed by the CIFS/9000 smbd UNIX process. Every Windows client connection to the CIFS/9000 server starts an individual smbd daemon that administers the client access. The smbd daemon implements the Windows file locking scheme, and interoperates with every other smbd daemon that is running on the local system to coordinate the file locks that each Windows client requests. The CIFS/9000 smbd daemons provide the common interface that ensures the validity of each file lock. However, since the smbd is not executing on the Windows native file server, some client applications using very strict adherence to programmatic native Windows locking protocol could exhibit unexpected behavior.

CIFS/9000 configures file locking in the /etc/opt/samba/smb.conf file. Default values do not need to be explicitly configured in the smb.conf file.

5.1. MANDATORY SHARE MODE LOCKING (OPEN MODE)

– as implemented by CIFS/9000 - uses Windows access modes and share modes.

Access mode:

Read: Read access only Write: Write access only

Read-Write: Read and Write access

Share mode:

Deny-None: Concurrent read and write access allowed Deny-All: No concurrent read or write access allowed Deny-Read: No concurrent read access allowed Deny-Write: No concurrent write access allowed

The Windows client application determines the access mode when calling Createfile. CIFS/9000 disables share mode in the smb.conf file on a per -share basis:

[share_name] share modes = no

The default is “yes”, so the parameter is usually not explicitly set unless it is set to “no”. However, most applications expect share mode to be set to yes – don’t change it.

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking applies to Windows clients only. File sharing issues arise when concurrent file access occurs between Windows clients and UNIX clients, PC-NFS clients, or on files that have been NFS-mounted. UNIX processes have no concept of Mandatory Share Mode locks. A key issue with sharing files between UNIX and

Windows is that a Windows client can hold a Mandatory Share Mode lock on a file, but a UNIX process can open the same file concurrently for write access, resulting in unacceptable risk of data corruption. CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate

Windows Mandatory Share Mode locks into byte range locks, therefore providing locking interoperation with the UNIX advisory locking protocol and reducing the risk of data corruption.

Providing protection for Windows clients from UNIX/NFS concurrent file access is an important added-value feature for Windows-UNIX integration, but is not a comprehensive solution. There are Windows-UNIX integration products that can provide Windows client Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locking protection from UNIX/NFS processes, even if they do not participate in the UNIX advisory locking protocol. However, if a UNIX/NFS application is not properly coded to lock files, then there is no way to protect other UNIX/NFS processes from concurrent file access data corruption. If data can be corrupted by UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, then providing Windows Share Mode (open mode) locking protection from those same UNIX/NFS processes (mixed-mode access) does not remove the element of risk from data corruption because the locking interoperability is not comprehensive system-wide3.

A future enhancement will protect Windows Clients with Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locks from UNIX/NFS concurrent file access even if the UNIX/NFS process does not participate in the advisory locking protocol. This file locking interoperability issue is the focus of many claims by HP’s competitors. See section 8 and Appendix B.5 for more

details.

5.2. BYTE RANGE LOCKING (programmatic) is implemented by the

Windows client calls to the LockFile and LockFileEx APIs. The smbd process honors the byte range lock by calling the UNIX fcntl function and invoking the UNIX byte range advisory locks on the file (see the UNIX topic above). Thus, if the Windows application sets byte range locks, CIFS/9000 can interoperate with UNIX processes utilizing advisory locking4. Windows client access (homogenous) will honor the CIFS/9000 byte range locks.

CIFS/9000 disables byte range locking with the “locking” parameter in the smb.conf file:

[share_name] locking = no

The default is “yes”. If locking is set to “no”, the byte range locks will appear to succeed on the Windows client, but the smbd will not actually apply the advisory locks to the file. When set to yes, the second open process blocks waiting for the release of the lock. Most applications expect the locking to be enabled (byte range locking) – don’t change it.

Strict locking changes the way byte range locking is enforced. By default, byte range locking is implemented when a Windows client application calls the LockFile or LockFileEx APIs. Byte range lock status is only checked when the application calls these APIs. Strict locking enables the smbd to check for byte range locks on every read and write access to a file. The

See Appendix B.5

See Appendix B.2

benefit is improved security, but in most cases the additional checks will be redundant to the application checks, and the cost will be reduced performance due to the extra overhead of checking for locks on every read and write.

CIFS/9000 enables strict locking on a per-share basis in the smb.conf file:

[share_name] strict locking = yes

The default is “no”.

Blocking locks enables the smbd to recognize a timeout period specified on a LockFileEx call. If a previous lock is encountered by a client attempting a byte range lock, the smbd will wait (block) for the timeout period to expire before failing the lock. If the previous lock is released before the timeout, the smbd will then grant the pending lock. When disabled, the lock request is failed immediately.

CIFS/9000 disables blocking locks on a per -share basis in the smb.conf file:

[share_name] blocking locks = no

The default is “yes”.

5.3. OPPORTUNISTIC LOCKING (Oplocks) is implemented by the

CIFS/9000 server on a per-share basis in the smb.conf file. CIFS/9000 Oplock functionality operates just like Windows. Oplocks are enabled by default for each share, which allows the Windows client to cache a local copy of a file for:

Read-ahead Write-caching Lock caching

CIFS/9000 disables Oplocks on a per -share basis in the smb.conf file:

[share_name] oplocks = no

The default is “yes”. The default oplock type is Level1.

CIFS/9000 enables Level2 Oplocks on a per -share basis in the smb.conf file:

[share_name] level2 oplocks = yes

The default is “no”. Oplocks must also be set to “yes” for the Level2 oplock parameter to function.

Oplocks apply to Windows clients only. File sharing issues arise when concurrent file access occurs between Windows clients and UNIX clients, PC-NFS clients, or on files that have been NFS-mounted. A key issue with sharing files between UNIX/NFS, PC-NFS, and

Windows clients is that a Windows client can request an Oplock from the CIFS/9000 server and be granted the Oplock (thus caching the file locally), but a

UNIX/NFS process or PC-NFS application can open the same file for write access without an Oplock Break being sent to the client, resulting in unacceptable risk of data corruption. Even a UNIX/NFS process that adheres to the advisory locking protocol

will not send an oplock break. Disabling Oplocks removes the risk of this particular data corruption, but also removes the performance benefit that Oplock file caching provides.

Currently, CIFS/9000 does not provide interoperability between UNIX/NFS, PC-NFS and Windows clients for oplocks. However, CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement to provide this interoperability. This enhancement will allow CIFS/9000 to send an oplock break

to a Windows client when a UNIX/NFS process or PC-NFS application attempts to access a file, even if the process or application does not participate in the advisory locking protocol. This file locking interoperability issue is the focus of many claims by

HP’s competitors. See section 8 for more details.

Kernel oplocks is a Samba smb.conf parameter that notifies Samba if the UNIX kernel has the capability to send a Windows client an Oplock Break if a UNIX process is attempting to open the file that is cached. This parameter addresses sharing files between UNIX and Windows with Oplocks enabled on the a Samba server: the UNIX process can open the file that is Oplocked (cached) by the Windows client and the smbd process will not send an Oplock break, which exposes the file to the risk of data corruption. If the UNIX kernel has the ability to send an Oplock break, then the kernel oplocks parameter enables Samba to send the Oplock break. Kernel oplocks are enabled on a per -server basis in the smb.conf file. However, CIFS/9000 currently does not support kernel oplocks, so the parameter has no effect:

[global] kernel oplocks = yes

The default is “no”. The planned enhancement for CIFS/9000 Oplocks will likely utilize this parameter.

Veto oplocks is a smb.conf parameter that identifies specific files for which Oplocks are disabled. When a Windows client opens a file that has been configured for veto oplocks, the client will not be granted the oplock, and all operations will be executed on the original file on disk instead of a client-cached file copy. By explicitly identifying files that are shared with UNIX processes, and disabling Oplocks for those files, the server-wide Oplock configuration can be enabled to allow Windows clients to utilize the performance benefit of file caching without the risk of data corruption. Veto Oplocks can be enabled on a per -share basis, or globally for the entire server, in the smb.conf file:

[global] veto oplock files = /filename.htm/*.txt/

[share_name] veto oplock files = /*.exe/filename.ext/

Chapter 6 CIFS/9000 File Locking

CIFS/9000

Clients

Interoperability Examples

Because the primary benefit of CIFS/9000 is to provide Windows client access to files residing on a UNIX operating system, shared client access examples all include at least one Windows client. The following examples will explain how file locking behaves when more than one client accesses a file via a CIFS/9000 share, both locally and NFS mounted.

6.1 WINDOWS ONLY CLIENT ACCESS – Local File

System

Windows

File

The diagram above shows 2 windows clients requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a local file system. The key issue for this configuration is that CIFS/9000 provides full Windows file locking functionality in a Windows homogenous environment.

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking is fully implemented. Byte Range locking is fully implemented. Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking is fully implemented.

UNIX

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

Mandatory, Byte Range, and Opportunistic locking are all enabled by default, and should always be enabled for a Windows-only client access environment. They may be explicitly configured on a per-share basis by editing the smb.conf file:

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes

6.2 WINDOWS ONLY CLIENT ACCESS – NFS Mounted

CIFS/9000

Clients

File System

Windows

File

The diagram above shows 2 Windows clients requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a NFS mounted file system. The key issue for this configuration is that because all Windows client access occurs via the CIFS/9000 server smbd processes, the file access is coordinated by CIFS/9000 even thought the disk file is remote, thus providing full file locking functionality in a Windows homogenous environment.

Mandatory Share Mode locking is fully implemented. Although no actual lock is placed upon the disk file over the NFS mount, the client processes believe that there is, and the server smbd processes coordinate to respect each other’s pseudo-lock. This locking scenario only applies when a single CIFS/9000 server is supplying both client connection requests.

Byte Range locking is fully implemented. The CIFS/9000 smbd process actually calls the UNIX fcntl to explicitly lock the byte range in UNIX with advisory byte range locks. The UNIX byte range is then propagated to NFS, so byte range locking is interoperable with NFS. With Windows-only concurrent access, the smbd process interprets the UNIX advisory lock as a Windows byte range lock, which the clients honor. . Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking is fully implemented for the same reason as the Mandatory Share Mode lock, and only applies when a single CIFS/9000 server is supplying both client connection requests.

UNIX

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes

These locks are valid when client access is confined to a single CIFS/9000 server that is exclusively NFS mounting the remote file system. If another client is concurrently accessing a file from a different server, either locally or via a NFS mount, then mandatory share mode locks and oplocks are ineffective, because the local server smbd processes are not coordinating exclusive file access. UNIX byte range locking is propagated over NFS, so it will work over multiple NFS mounts. In these cases, disable oplocks, and enable share mode and byte range.

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

Note: It is not recommended to NFS mount a remote file system from the CIFS/9000 server for Windows client access. Performance could be affected.

6.3 WINDOWS AND UNIX CLIENT ACCESS – Local File

CIFS/9000

Clients

System

Windows

File

The diagram above shows a Windows client and a UNIX client requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a local file system. The key issue for this configuration is understanding when the client platform locking schemes can or cannot interoperate.

A UNIX process is not aware of Windows Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking. Therefore, a Windows client may lock a file with Mandatory Share Mode locks, but the UNIX process may concurrently open and read or write to the file, despite the Windows client file locks. CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate Windows Mandatory Share Mode

locks into byte range locks, thus providing locking interoperation with the UNIX advisory locking protocol and reducing the risk of data corruption.

Remember: competitors claim their Mandatory Share Mode locking interoperability mechanism provides comprehensive protection from UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, even if they do not participate in the advisory locking protocol. However, if a UNIX/NFS application is not properly coded to lock files, then there is no way to protect other UNIX/NFS processes from concurrent file access data corruption. If data can be corrupted by UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, then providing Windows Share Mode (open mode) locking protection from those same UNIX/NFS processes

UNIX

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

(mixed-mode access) does not remove the element of risk from data corruption because the locking interoperability is not comprehensive system-wide5.

Byte Range locking is implemented for both Windows and UNIX access with UNIX advisory byte range locking via the fcntl function. Since UNIX byte range locking is advisory, a UNIX process must be properly coded to participate in the locking protocol. The CIFS/9000 smbd process actually calls the UNIX fcntl function to implement Windows byte range locking. When both processes correctly interact, byte range locking is fully effective in a mixed Windows-UNIX access environment. Byte range locking should remain enabled.

Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking should be disabled for any share that has mixed Windows and UNIX client access. A UNIX process has no concept of an oplock, therefore cannot send an oplock break when a Windows client has cached a copy of a file. A UNIX process could open and write to a disk file that has been modified in the Windows client cache, which results in an unacceptable risk of data corruption. Oplocks should be disabled in a mixed Windows-UNIX access environment.

Mandatory, Byte Range, and Opportunistic locking are all enabled by default. Disable oplocks for Windows-UNIX share file access explicitly on a per -share basis by editing the smb.conf file:

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

veto oplocks can be used to specify particular files on a share that will encounter mixed Windows and UNIX access, and prevent the CIFS/9000 server from granting oplock requests upon those files. By enabling veto oplocks for mixed-mode shared access, Windows clients can continue to utilize oplocks for Windows-only shared access and gain the performance benefit of file caching.

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes veto oplock files = /filename.ext/

See Appendix B.5

6.4 WINDOWS AND UNIX CLIENT ACCESS – NFS

CIFS/9000

Mounted File System

Windows

File

The diagram above shows a Windows client and a UNIX client requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a NFS mounted file system. The key issue for this configuration is understanding when the client platform locking schemes can or cannot interoperate.

A UNIX process is not aware of Windows Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking, regardless of the NFS mount. A Windows client may lock a file on the CIFS/9000 server (in this case the server is also an NFS client) with Mandatory Share Mode locks, but the lock is not propagated over the NFS mount. CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate

Windows Mandatory Share Mode locks into byte range locks, thus providing locking interoperation with the UNIX advisory locking protocol and reducing the risk of data corruption. Windows applications expect mandatory share mode locking to be

enabled, so share mode locking should remain enabled.

Remember: competitors that claim their Mandatory Share Mode locking interoperability mechanism provides comprehensive protection from UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, even if they do not participate in the advisory locking protocol. However, if a UNIX/NFS application is not properly coded to lock files, then there is no way to protect other UNIX/NFS processes from concurrent file access data corruption. If data can be corrupted by UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, then providing Windows Share Mode (open mode) locking protection from

UNIX

Clients

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

those same UNIX/NFS processes (mixed-mode access) does not remove the element of risk from data corruption because the locking interoperability is not comprehensive system-wide6.

Byte Range locking is implemented for concurrent Windows and UNIX access with UNIX advisory byte range locking via the fcntl function, and NFS propagates the locks over the NFS mount to the disk file. Since UNIX byte range locking is advisory, other processes accessing the file must be properly coded to participate in the locking protocol. The CIFS/9000 smbd process actually calls the UNIX fcntl function to implement Windows byte range locking. Thus, a Windows client accessing a NFS mounted file on a CIFS/9000 share using Windows byte range locks will interoperate with other Windows clients using byte range locks (even from other CIFS/9000 servers) or with UNIX processes that are properly coded to participate in the byte range locking protocol. When both processes correctly participate in UNIX advisory locking, byte range locking is fully effective in a mixed Windows-UNIX NFS client environment. Byte range locking should remain enabled.

Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking should be disabled for any share that has mixed Windows and UNIX client access, regardless of an NFS mount. UNIX and NFS have no concept of an oplock, therefore cannot send an oplock break when a Windows client has cached a copy of a file. A UNIX process could open and write to a disk file that has been modified in the Windows client cache, which results in an unacceptable risk of data corruption. Oplocks should be disabled in a mixed Windows-UNIX access environment, regardless of NFS usage.

Mandatory, Byte Range, and Opportunistic locking are all enabled by default. Disable oplocks for Windows-UNIX share file access explicitly on a per -share basis by editing the smb.conf file:

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes veto oplock files = /filename.ext/

See Appendix B.5

6.5 WINDOWS AND UNIX/NFS CLIENT ACCESS – Local

CIFS/9000

and NFS Mounted File Systems

Windows

File

The diagram above shows a Windows client and a UNIX/NFS client requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server. The key issue for this configuration is understanding when the client platform locking schemes can or cannot interoperate.

A UNIX/NFS process is not aware of Windows Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking. Therefore, a Windows client may lock a file with Mandatory Share Mode locks, but the UNIX/ NFS process may concurrently open and read or write to the file, despite the Windows client file locks. CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate Windows Mandatory

Share Mode locks into byte range locks, thus providing locking interoperation with the UNIX advisory locking protocol and reducing the risk of data corruption.

UNIX/NFS PC-NFS

Clients

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

(mixed-mode access) does not remove the element of risk from data corruption because the locking interoperability is not comprehensive system-wide7.

Byte Range locking is implemented for both Windows and UNIX/NFS access with UNIX advisory byte range locking via the fcntl function. Since UNIX/NFS byte range locking is advisory, a UNIX process must be properly coded to participate in the locking protocol. The CIFS/9000 smbd process actually calls the UNIX fcntl function to implement Windows byte range locking. When both processes correctly interact, byte range locking is fully effective in a mixed Windows-UNIX/NFS access environment. Byte range locking should remain enabled.

Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking should be disabled for any share that has mixed Windows and UNIX/NFS client access. A UNIX process has no concept of an oplock, therefore cannot send an oplock break when a Windows client has cached a copy of a file. A UNIX process could open and write to a disk file that has been modified in the Windows client cache, which results in an unacceptable risk of data corruption. Oplocks should be disabled in a mixed Windows-UNIX/NFS access environment.

Mandatory, Byte Range, and Opportunistic locking are all enabled by default. Disable oplocks for Windows-UNIX share file access explicitly on a per -share basis by editing the smb.conf file:

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes veto oplock files = /filename.ext/

See Appendix B.5

6.6 WINDOWS AND PC-NFS CLIENT ACCESS – Local

CIFS/9000

Clients

and NFS Mounted File Systems

Windows

File

The diagram above shows a Windows client and a PC-NFS client requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a local and/or NFS mounted file system. The key issue for this configuration is that with PC-NFS, the locking interoperability is the same for a local or NFS mounted file system, and even for PC-NFS direct access to the NFS file server – as illustrated above.

PC-NFS implements Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking through the NFS Network Lock Manager. This allows PC-NFS to place and honor Mandatory Share Mode locks with other PC-NFS clients. CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate Windows

Mandatory Share Mode locks into byte range locks, thus providing locking interoperation with the UNIX/NFS advisory locking protocol and reducing the risk of data corruption. This enhancement works for PC-NFS because of the interoperation in

the NLM. Windows applications expect mandatory share mode locking to be enabled, so share mode locking should remain enabled on the CIFS/9000 server.

Byte Range locking is implemented for concurrent Windows and PC-NFS access using the NFS NLM. Since NFS NLM byte range locking is advisory, Windows applications that are accessing the file must be properly coded to participate in the locking protocol. PC-NFS will propagate the Windows byte range lock over the PC-NFS mount. The cooperating CIFS/9000 smbd process actually calls the UNIX fcntl function to implement Windows client byte range locking. Thus, a Windows PC-NFS client accessing a file on a CIFS/9000 share using

UNIX

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

Windows byte range locks will interoperate with other Windows clients using byte range locks or with UNIX processes that are properly coded to participate in the byte range locking protocol. When both processes correctly participate in the advisory locking protocol, byte range locking is fully effective in a mixed Windows, PC-NFS, and UNIX client environment. Byte range locking should remain enabled8.

Opportunistic (Oplocks) locking should be disabled for any share that has mixed Windows and PC-NFS client access. PC-NFS has no concept of an oplock, therefore cannot send an oplock break when a Windows client has cached a copy of a file. A PC-NFS client could open and write to a disk file that has been modified in the Windows client cache, which results in an unacceptable risk of data corruption. Oplocks should be disabled in a mixed Windows-PCNFS access environment.

Mandatory, Byte Range, and Opportunistic locking are all enabled by default. Disable oplocks for Windows/PC-NFS share file access explicitly on a per-share basis by editing the smb.conf file:

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

veto oplocks can be used to specify particular files on a share that will encounter mixed Windows and PC-NFS access, and prevent the CIFS/9000 server from granting oplock requests upon those files. By enabling veto oplocks for mixed-mode shared access, Windows clients can continue to utilize oplocks for Windows-only shared access and gain the performance benefit of file caching.

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only> locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = yes veto oplock files = /filename.ext/

See Appendix B.2

6.7 WINDOWS AND CIFS/9000 CLIENT – Local and NFS

CIFS/9000

Clients

Mounted File Systems

Windows

File

The diagram above shows a Windows client and a CIFS/9000 client requesting concurrent file access on the CIFS/9000 server to a local file system and a NFS mounted file system.

The key issue for this configuration is that a CIFS/9000 client has no file locking capability. The CIFS/9000 client product allows UNIX workstations to connect to CIFS servers (either native Windows or CIFS/9000) and share files using the CIFS (SMB) protocol. A properly coded UNIX application that adheres to the advisory locking protocol and is running on the CIFS/9000 client will call the fcntl byte range locking functions, and those calls will fail due to the CIFS/9000 client’s inability to propagate those locks to the CIFS protocol. The application effect of the function failure is dependant upon the application logic. There is no CIFS/9000 client file locking distinction between a CIFS/9000 server local file system or a NFS mounted file system: client locking is currently not implemented for either file system. A CIFS/9000 client should not be allowed concurrent file access with other client access platforms on either a CIFS/9000 server or a native Windows server.

CIFS/9000 client locking capability is under investigation and will be a HP added-value feature in the near future. Currently, do not allow concurrent file access.

Note: The HP CIFS/9000 client is based upon the “Sharity” 3rd-party product.

[share_name] share modes = yes <default config – shown for example only>

UNIX

PC-NFS

CIFS/9000

Windows

NFS

locking = yes <default config – shown for example only> oplocks = no

Chapter 7 CIFS/9000 LOCKING SUMMARY

The following table summarizes CIFS/9000 file locking:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) CIFS/9000

Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Planned Enhancement9 Lock UNIX – advisory locking Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Planned Enhancement9 Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Lock PC-NFS Byte Range Locking Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Planned Enhancement Lock UNIX – advisory locking Yes10 Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Planned Enhancement Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Yes Oplocks Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory Planned Enhancement Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory Planned Enhancement

Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory Planned Enhancement Break Oplock for PC-NFS Planned Enhancement

Yes (HP-UX AR 0901)

Planned Enhancement

See Appendix B.5

See Appendix B.2

Chapter 8 CIFS/9000 COMPETITION LOCKING

SUMMARY

CIFS/9000 competitors are comprised of dedicated NAS (Network Attached Storage) file servers and general purpose UNIX/NT integration servers. Competitor file locking data has been gathered from the documentation of the competitor’s products and summarized here. In a future revision of this paper, actual competitor locking test results will be published. The following products will be examined:

• Network Appliance “Filers”

• EMC Celerra

• Auspex NeTservices

• Veritas File Server Edition

8.1 Network Appliance

Network Appliance markets very specific NAS servers that they call “Filers”. Filers are single-purpose front-end “thin servers” used exclusively for storage access. NetApps employs a feature called the “SecureShare” cross-protocol Lock Manager. NetApps literature claims that SecureShare provides comprehensive multi-platform (heterogeneous) file locking capability.

NetApps servers are single-purpose file servers running a proprietary OS called Data Ontap. UNIX users and applications do not run on the system. Therefore, UNIX-Windows concurrent file access is not an issue, and NetApps literature ignores UNIX file sharing issues - probably for this reason. SecureShare does offer an interoperability mechanism for Windows and NFS clients. SecureShare can protect Windows clients with Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locks from concurrent file access UNIX/NFS applications, even if they do not participate in the advisory locking protocol. However, if a UNIX/NFS application is not properly coded to lock files, then SecureShare cannot protect other UNIX/NFS processes from concurrent file access data corruption. If SecureShare allows data to be corrupted by UNIX/NFS concurrent file access, then providing Windows Share Mode (open mode) locking protection from those same UNIX/NFS processes has limited value11.

Based upon Network Appliance documentation, SecureShare provides the following file locking ability:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode)

Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Yes11 Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Yes Byte Range Locking Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Yes11 Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Yes Oplocks

Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory Not Applicable Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory Yes Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory Yes Break Oplock for PC-NFS Yes

See Appendix B.5

Network Appliance

Not Applicable

NetApps SecureShare provides Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locking for concurrent access with PC-NFS and UNIX/NFS. CIFS/9000 provides this locking feature at the HP-UX September 2001 Application Release.

NetApps SecureShare provides byte range locking interoperability even for UNIX/NFS processes that do not participate in the advisory locking protocol. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement scheduled to provide the same locking feature. Please read Chapter 3 and Appendix B to understand the actual significance of this capability.

NetApps SecureShare provides Oplock support for Windows clients with concurrent access from PC-NFS and UNIX/NFS. SecureShare will send an Oplock break to a Windows client when a PC-NFS client performs an open on the file, and when a UNIX/NFS client reads or writes to a file. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement scheduled to provide the same locking feature.

Empirical data will be added when test equipment becomes available.

8.2 EMC Celerra

EMC markets its Celerra file server as a NAS front-end to a Symetrix disk array. Celerra is a single-purpose front-end server used exclusively for storage access to Symetrix. It runs a proprietary OS called DART that is incapable of running applications, users, or accessing and interoperating with non -EMC storage devices.

Since Celerra supports no users or applications, UNIX-Windows concurrent file access is not an issue. EMC documentation about locking behavior of Celerra is vague, but basic behavior can be surmised by utilizing various documents.

Based upon EMC documentation, Celerra provides the following file locking ability:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) EMC Celerra

Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Unknown12 Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Unknown Byte Range Locking Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking Unknown12 Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Unknown Oplocks Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory Not Applicable Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory Unknown Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory Unknown Break Oplock for PC-NFS Unknown

EMC Celerra appears to provide Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locking for concurrent access with UNIX/NFS when the advisory locking protocol is adhered to. They make no statement about PC-NFS. CIFS/9000 provides this locking feature at the HP-UX September 2001 Application Release.

EMC Celerra appears to provide byte range locking for UNIX/NFS when the advisory locking protocol is adhered to. They make no statement about PC-NFS. CIFS/9000 provides byte range locking for UNIX, UNIX/NFS and PC-NFS.

Anecdotal evidence suggests Celerra has this feature. See Appendix B.5

Not Applicable

EMC’s Celerra documentation claims support of oplocks, but makes no mention of UNIX/NFS interoperability. They recommend turning oplocks off when “handling critical data with the need to avoid even slight data loss”, which implies that they do not interoperate with UNIX/NFS. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement scheduled to provide UNIX, UNIX/NFS, and PC-NFS oplock support.

Empirical data will be added when test equipment becomes available.

HP Sales Force personnel report that customers have been informed by EMC that Celerra provides comprehensive cross-platform locking, including:

• Byte Range

• Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode)

• Non-Locking NFS client

Please read Chapter 3 and Appendix B.

See Appendix B.5

8.3 Auspex NeTservices

Auspex markets a NAS server called 4Front NetServer 2000. Auspex is an Advanced Server for UNIX OEM customer of AT&T, and their version of Advanced Server is the NeTservices UNIX/Windows consolidation product, running on UNIX on the 4Front NS 2000 server. AT&T Advanced Server is also the OEM source for HP’s AS/9000 product.

NeTservices runs on a UNIX operating system, but like NetApps and EMC, appears to be a single-purpose NAS server. Thus, NeTservices can provide concurrent file access for Windows and NFS clients, but does not support UNIX users or applications on the server. NeTservices file locking implementation appears to be based upon Advanced Server for UNIX, which provides byte range locking interoperability for Windows and NFS. NFS access must adhere to the advisory locking protocol.

Advanced Server for UNIX also enables oplocks, but for Windows-only client access. However, enabling oplocks automatically disables UNIX/NFS locks.

Based upon Auspex and Advanced Server documentation, NeTservices provides the following file locking ability:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Auspex NeTservices

Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking No Lock PC-NFS No Byte Range Locking Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX – advisory locking Not Applicable Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS No Oplocks Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory Not Applicable Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory No Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory No Break Oplock for PC-NFS No

Auspex NeTservices provides Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locking for Windows clients only. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement to interoperate Windows Mandatory Share Mode (open mode) locking with UNIX, UNIX/NFS, and PC-NFS.

Not Applicable

NeTservices provides byte range locking for UNIX/NFS when the advisory locking protocol is adhered to. They make no statement about PC-NFS. CIFS/9000 provides byte range locking for UNIX, UNIX/NFS and PC-NFS.

NeTservices provides oplocks support for Windows-only file access. Advanced Server for UNIX oplock support is enabled server-wide, and automatically disables UNIX/NFS byte range lock support, so oplocks can only be enabled for a purely Windows homogeneous client environment. CIFS/9000 enables oplocks per-share, so shares that require UNIX and/or UNIX/NFS locking can co-exist with oplock shares. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement to interoperate Windows oplocks with UNIX, UNIX/NFS, and PC-NFS.

8.4 Veritas File Server Edition

Veritas markets a UNIX/NT integration product called File Server Edition that runs on Sun SPARC Solaris servers. File Server Edition consists of the Veritas File System, Veritas Volume Manager, Veritas Quicklog, and Samba.

Veritas File Edition literature does not reference file locking capabilities. However, since it is essentially Samba bundled with other Veritas products, we can reasonably conclude that the file locking behavior is similar to CIFS/9000 (which is based upon Samba 2.0.6), minus the planned enhancements.

Based upon Samba documentation, Veritas provides the following file locking ability:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Veritas FSE

Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX – advisory locking No Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking No Lock PC-NFS No Byte Range Locking Lock Windows Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX – advisory locking Yes Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking No Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Lock PC-NFS Yes Oplocks Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory No Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory No Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory No Break Oplock for PC-NFS No

Veritas File Server Edition will provide standard Samba locking.

8.5 Locking Summary Table

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) CIFS/9000 Net Apps EMC Auspex

Lock Windows Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Lock UNIX – no advisory locking P/E N/A N/A N/A No

Lock UNIX – advisory locking Yes (0901) N/A N/A N/A No Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking P/E14 Yes14 U14 No No

Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes (0901) Yes Yes No No Lock PC-NFS Yes (0901) Yes U No No

Byte Range Locking

Lock Windows Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Lock UNIX – no advisory locking P/E N/A N/A N/A No Lock UNIX – advisory locking Yes N/A N/A N/A Yes

Lock UNIX/NFS – no advisory locking P/E14 Yes14 U14 No No Lock UNIX/NFS – advisory locking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Lock PC-NFS Yes Yes U No Yes

Oplocks

Break Oplock for Windows access Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Break Oplock for UNIX access – no

P/E N/A N/A N/A No

advisory Break Oplock for UNIX access - advisory P/E N/A N/A N/A No

Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – no advisory P/E Yes U No No Break Oplock for UNIX/NFS – advisory P/E Yes U No No

Break Oplock for PC-NFS P/E Yes U No No

• P/E= Planned Enhancement

• N/A= Not Applicable

• U= Unknown

Veritas

See Appendix B5

Chapter 9 CIFS/9000 File Locking

Interoperability Summary

A CIFS/9000 server can provide file storage (and printing) for Windows clients, UNIX clients, NFS and PC-NFS clients, and the CIFS/9000 client. Understanding how the various client platforms invoke file locking for homogenous and heterogeneous (mixed) client access is critical when designing and implementing a NAS or technical server configuration.

It is absolutely essential that HP sales force personnel understand the customer environment to determine if cross-platform file locking is a necessity. It is also essential that the customer understand that competitor’s claims of protection from non-locking NFS clients does not provide comprehensive data integrity, because if one non -locking NFS client can access a file, then two non-locking NFS clients can access a file, and no vendor can claim data integrity protection for two non -locking clients.

CIFS/9000 provides secure, comprehensive file locking for homogenous Windows client access – either locally or over an NFS mount. Mixed client access requires knowledge of how the various client platform applications and file systems lock files to fully understand how they will interoperate. Based upon that knowledge, informed decisions can be made about how to configure the CIFS/9000 for mixed client access, or whether to allow mixed client access, or whether CIFS/9000 is the correct server platform to implement.

Windows utilizes 3 different file locking mechanisms:

Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Locking Byte Range Locking Opportunistic Locking (Oplocks)

Windows clients unilaterally honor mandatory share mode (open mode) and byte range locking. Opportunistic locking allows Windows clients to cache files locally, thus enjoying a significant performance boost due to decreased network latency. Oplocks rely on the ability of an oplock break to notify the caching client that concurrent access has been requested from another client, therefore causing the original client to flush all cached data to the file server.

UNIX/NFS uses Byte Range locking to implement the advisory locking protocol. UNIX/NFS locking is not mandatory in most cases, and requires that other processes correctly implement the advisory locking protocol. Byte range locking in this case does not protect a file from non-locking UNIX/NFS processes.

PC-NFS (as tested with WRQ) utilizes the Network Lock Manager to implement byte range locking. Thus, PC-NFS also is dependant upon the advisory locking protocol for concurrent file access, and cannot protect a locked file from access by a non-locking process.

CIFS/9000 implements all aspects of Windows file locking when file access is homogeneous, Windows-only access.

CIFS/9000 at first release provides interoperability between Windows, UNIX/NFS, and PCNFS clients by implementing the byte range advisory locking protocol. CIFS/9000 will

protect Windows clients that have locked files from UNIX/NFS and PC-NFS processes that implement the byte range advisory locking protocol. CIFS/9000 will not protect Windows clients from processes that do not adhere to the advisory locking protocol. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement to provide this capability.

CIFS/9000 provides locking interoperability between Windows clients with Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locks and UNIX/NFS or PC-NFS clients as of the September 2001 HP-UX application Release15.

Currently, CIFS/9000 will not send Windows Clients an oplock break when a UNIX/NFS or PC-NFS client requests concurrent file access. CIFS/9000 has a planned enhancement to provide this capability.

At first release in March of 2000, CIFS/9000 provides comprehensive Windows client file locking interoperability, and byte-range locking interoperability for UNIX/NFS and PC-NFS clients. At the September 2001 HP-UX Application Release, Windows Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locking interoperability UNIX/NFS advisory locking is added. With the addition of non-locking protection and oplocks in future enhancements, CIFS/9000 will meet, and in most cases exceed, its competitors Windows-UNIX/NFS interoperability file system products.

See Appendix B4

Appendix A smb.conf Examples

A.1 smb.conf for Windows -Only Access

# Samba config file created using SWAT # Date: 2000/04/10 12:59:01

# Global parameters [global] workgroup = SNSLATC netbios name = CIFS_SERVER server string = Samba Server security = DOMAIN encrypt passwords = Yes password server = * syslog = 0 log file = /var/opt/samba/log.%m max log size = 1000 local master = No read only = No short preserve case = No dos filetime resolution = Yes

[tmp] path = /tmp

[cifshare] comment = CIFS User Home Share path = /home/cifshare share modes = yes locking = yes oplocks = yes

A.2 smb.conf for Mixed-Mode Access

# Samba config file created using SWAT # Date: 2000/04/10 12:59:01

[tmp] path = /tmp

[cifshare] comment = CIFS User Home Share path = /home/cifshare share modes = yes locking = yes oplocks = no

Appendix B Sales Tool: Locking Technology

Examples

Hewlett-Packard Sales Force personnel must understand the customer’s operating environment in order to accurately assess their file locking requirements. HP’s competitors have been very effective in misinforming potential customers about the necessity of crossplatform CIFS/NFS file locking. It is critical that the Sales Force personnel determine if a customer needs file locking, and then what level of file locking (if any) is required.

B.1 Determine Locking Requirement

HP-UX 11 CIFS/9000 / NFS File Server & Storage

Files Accessed by

Windows Clients

Shared CIFS/NFS File Access

Files Accessed by

NFS Clients

Locking Needed?Data MgtACLrwxFilename

No data managementNo ACLRead onlyFilename1 No data managementACE on ACLRead/WriteFilename2 PDM, Clearcase, etc…No ACLRead/WriteFilename3 No data managementNo ACLRead/WriteFilename4

YES – Locking Needed

NO NO NO

1. Are there files or directories that will be accessed by both CIFS and NFS?

2. How many files or directories, and what kind of data?

3. Will clients have write access to the files or directories?

4. Are there ACLs on the file or directories that manage client access?

5. Is there a data management application that administers access (Clearcase or PDM

server)?

Answering these questions will help to educate the customer about the realistic exposure to data corruption that exists within their operating environment due to concurrent CIFS/NFS cross-platform file access. In most cases the actual existing need for cross-platform file locking will be rare. HP Sales Force personnel must emphasize this point.

B.2 Byte Range Locking

Windows and NFS clients invoke byte range locking with API and function calls. These locks are processed in server user space, where the Windows client locking semantics are translated by smbd to UNIX fcntl locks and propagated to the Kernel Lock Manager. The Kernel Lock Manager is the common denominator for the platform locking semantics, which allows the platform locks to interoperate and guarantee data integrity when the advisory protocol is adhered to.

CIFS/9000 implements cross-platform CIFS/NFS byte range locking.

B.3 Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Locks

CIFS NFS

Open Mode Locks DO NOT Interoperate at KLM!

Previously, CIFS/9000 Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locks were processed and managed by the Samba Internal Locking Mechanism only. They were not translated into the UNIX fcntl call and propagated to the Kernel Lock Manager. Therefore, Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locks did not interoperate with NFS Byte Range locks at the KLM, and data corruption could result in those cases where concurrent file access by both CIFS and NFS clients was probable

See Appendix B4 for HP’s enhancement for this issue.

CIFS/NFS Open Mode Locking

Old Behavior pre-Sept 2001

Open Mode Lock Byte Range Lock

Samba

User space

Kernel space Kernel space

Samba Internal Locking Mechanism

HP-UX 11

NLM

Network Lock

Manager

User space

KLM

Kernel Lock

Manager

JFS 3.3 File System

B.4 Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) Enhancement

CIFS NFS

Translate Open Mode Locks to Byte Range Locks!

CIFS/9000 has been enhanced to translate Windows Mandatory Share Mode (Open Mode) locks into UNIX Byte-Range locks using the fcntl function. The resulting Byte-Range locks will interoperate in the KLM with NFS Byte-Range locks, and data integrity will be provided for concurrent CIFS/NFS cross platform file access when the advisory locking protocol is adhered to. This is the most useful locking feature for providing additional data integrity for HP’s customers that will be accessing a common file set from Windows and NFS clients.

CIFS/NFS Open Mode Locking

New– HP-UX AR 0901

Open Mode Lock Byte Range Lock

Samba

User space

Kernel space Kernel space

Samba Internal Locking Mechanism

Byte Range Lock

HP-UX 11

NLM

Network Lock

Manager

User space

KLM

Kernel Lock

Manager

JFS 3.3 File System

B.5 Competitor’s Claims for NFS Non -Locking Protection

Competitors claim to protect their CIFS clients from NFS clients that are not participating in the advisory locking protocol. Their claim is based upon their mechanism of comparing every NFS read and write operation with locking records in the Kernel Lock Manager (or similar lock manager). The KLM will record every outstanding lock that is held by a CIFS or NFS client. If a non -locking NFS client attempts a write to a file, the write location will be compared against lock records in the KLM. If that file is already locked, the operation will fail. This mechanism works well for that case. Howev er, the figure below illustrates how data integrity is at risk even with their protection mechanism:

1. If NFS clients B and/or C have a file cached (like in vi), a CIFS client or locking NFS client can lock the file. Since the KLM has no record of A or B access, it grants the lock. Now client A and/or B have “stale” data.

2. If one non-locking NFS client has access to a file, then two or more non-locking NFS clients have access to a file.

a. Client B can overwrite C causing data corruption b. Client C can overwrite B causing data corruption.

An HP bid for a customer deal should not be won based upon this file locking issue. This file locking functionality does not provide any real protection from data corruption.

HP HP-UX Common Internet File System User's Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual