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Inability for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 to view shares when connecting via SMB to 2008 R2 Cluster running File Services

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:17 AM

Inability for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 to view shares when connecting via SMB to 2008 R2 Cluster running File Services

 

 

Environment is defined as the following:

 

Servers:

 

File Server Cluster "FileCluster"

Two 2008 R2 Enterprise servers hosting a Failover Cluster that is providing File Services (SMB only) - fresh installation and put into production.  Located in "Server" subnet.  Running on HP BL460cG6 and connected to 3Par InServe T800 via QLogic FC Mezzanine Adapters -> Brocade 8Gb FC C7000 Chassis Switches -> InServ FC adapters.

 

File Server Standalone "Sparky"

1 2008 R2 Standard being used as a workstation - was in-place upgraded from 2008 SP1 to SP2 to R2 (over several months).  Located in "User" subnet.  Local SATA storage was used for testing.

 

Workstations:

 

1 Mac running OS X 10.6.2

1 Mac running OS X 10.5.8

1 Mac running OS X 10.4.11

 

Above workstations are in "User" subnet.

 

Users:

 

All users are domain users with appropriate rights to shares, and NTFS level permissions are confirmed correct.  Access from a Windows machine provides the desired results.

 

 

Issue Synopsis

 

Access from a Windows device over SMB either directly to the file share on the "FileCluster" Client Access Point or via DFS works fine.  Access to "Sparky" hosted shares also work.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.5.8 or 10.4.11 over SMB to the "FileCluter" Client Access Point fails via connection string of "smb://<fqdn>/".  The share enumeration screen appears, however no shares are listed.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.5.8 over SMB to the “FileCluster” Client Access Point fails via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>:139/”.  The share enumeration screen appears, however no shares are listed.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.5.8 over SMB to the “FileCluster” Client Access Point succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>:139/<share name>”.  Share is connected successfully.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.4.11 over SMB to the “FileCluster” Client Access Point succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>/<share name>”.  Share is connected successfully.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.6.2 over SMB to the “FileCluster” Client Access Point succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>/”.  Shares are enumerated correctly.

 

Access from a Mac device running 10.6.2 over SMB to the “FileCluster” Client Access Point succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>/<share name>”.  Share is connected successfully.

 

Access from a Mac device (any version) over SMB to the “Sparky” server succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>/” with share enumeration.

 

Access from a Mac device (any version) over SMB to the “Sparky” server succeeds via connection string of “smb://<fqdn>/<share name>”.  Share is connected successfully.

 

 

Essentially, the goal is for Mac users to be able to enumerate the shares.

 

I’ve started building a test cluster utilizing similar hardware, storage, and OS configurations – meaning HP BL460 blades, 3Par InServe storage, and 2008 R2.  The goal of the test is to determine whether or not the Client Access Point can service the share enumeration requests from 10.4 and 10.5 clients.  I’ve tested it out pre-cluster (still building up the 2nd node) and thus far it works perfectly fine for 10.4 and 10.5 Mac clients to connect via “smb://<fqdn>/” and enumerate shares.

 

If anyone has run into this before, it would be great to hear how it was fixed – if it can be – or to get more details from others as I plan on utilizing PSS for this once I have my findings validated via this test cluster.

All replies (7)

Thursday, December 17, 2009 12:59 AM ✅Answered

I believe this has been fixed in Snow Leopard, contact Apple for confirmation / more information.

As a workaround, you can configure to use port 139 and connect using the NetBIOS name in the URL by doing the following in the nsmb.conf:

example:
echo "[default]" >  ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf
echo "port445=netbios_only" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf

Then thconnect with a URL that has the NetBIOS name in it, example smb://<NetBIOSname>:139/<share>

There is also the following requirements for the cluster nodes:

  • NETBIOS must be enabled on all cluster nodes
  • NTLMv2 response only should be changed to LM and NTLM, NTLMv2 if negotiated

Thanks!
Elden

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:43 AM

This is the only other post I've seen on this board regarding problems with SMB shares and Mac clients.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverClustering/thread/27ee48d8-ae82-4530-9503-133cbcc8000b/David A. Bermingham, Director of Product Management, SteelEye Technology

Monday, March 15, 2010 5:47 PM

We are having the same issue with our older 10.4.x and 10.5.x clients. 

Has there been a server-side resolution for 2008 R2?

Friday, April 2, 2010 6:35 PM | 1 vote

MR102304,

No, there isn't really anything that can be done on the server, it's an issue Apple should address as they updated their software in 10.6 and it has no problems.  We had contacted Apple when we had this issue and they flat out told us they were NOT going to fix it for 10.5 or below.  They said the soluation was to update to 10.6.  Apple doesn't let you update your SAMBA client without going through them.  You can't go to Sambas website and download the latest version and compile it for your MAC and Apple it seems has no interest in keeping SAMBA clients up to date unless you are running 10.6.

Friday, August 13, 2010 6:02 AM

Hi

That Apple is not allowing you to update samba is not true, there is nothing stopping anyone in downloading the latest samba version compile it and run it, BUT you will not be able to control it through Server Admin since it uses templates to control samba.

Per

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:27 PM

We are experiencing the problem with our 10.4 & 10.5 OS Macs too EXCEPT we don't have clustering services. The storage we're having issue with is SAN attached and we're using DFS for the Windows clients although the Macs connect to the server share.

I'm surprised you didn't have the issue with "Sparky". I wonder if the migration from 2008 SP1 to R2 is significant here. Our servers are R2 from scratch.

I'm also told by my support staff some of the 10.4 and 10.5 OS Macs can connect to the server share. They're still compiling data to see if we can come up with a common thread.

Thursday, June 9, 2011 12:11 PM

I believe this has been fixed in Snow Leopard, contact Apple for confirmation / more information.

As a workaround, you can configure to use port 139 and connect using the NetBIOS name in the URL by doing the following in the nsmb.conf:

example:
echo "[default]" >  ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf
echo "port445=netbios_only" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf

Can't find a way to thank you enough for this. Spent 2 weeks to find a solution.

 

Registered in forum just to say thanks. THANKS a mil.