Got a strange one here...

Have a folder (NTFS qtree w/ oplocks on) shared out via CIFS (also NFS, but expected to be minimal NFS access but still a variable). This folder contains files used for internal software builds/compiles and so several clients can be accessing it at the same time.

CIFS clients in this case are typically Mac OSX.

Ocassionally (lately, a couple of times a day), CIFS clients are unable to access portions of the tree. Even from Windows we get a permission denied error and can't even view ACL's on the affected folder.

To solve the problem, we look for a CIFS client holding the location open and close it out. Then the folder becomes usable again. The CIFS client only has the folder open in "Read" mode.

A couple thoughts from my side:

- Maybe we should disable oplocks. Shouldn't be a lot (if any) NFS access to this share, but is a variable. - Our permissions are a bit wonky here. Share level permissions are in place to restrict most access to read-only, but file level permissions are set to full for "Everyone". Perhaps this is resulting in some sort of exclusive locking happening based on the more open nature of the file system permissions even if the share level allows read only?

We'll probably try the oplocks thing for starters, but looking for any insights.

Oh -- this is ONTAP 8.0.2P3 in 7-mode.

Thanks, Ray