[plug] Samba issues

[Brad Campbell]

G'day all,

I've googled extensively and turned up nothing conclusive, so I thought 
I'd ask here and see if this tweaks a memory somewhere.

I have a Debian 7 server (7.9 to be precise) and it is running Samba 3.6.6.

This is configured with security=user (no domain) and I've been happily 
using it to share out directories to Windows machines and VM's for some 
years now.

As part of my day to day, I use AutoCAD and Revit a _lot_ and until 
recently was running it in a 64bit Windows Server 2003 instance. This 
was a happy setup and I never had issues with it. Unfortunately (or 
fortunately as it might seem) we've landed a new job, and I've had to 
move to Windows 7 as the latest version of Revit won't install in S2k3.

A lot of what I do with AutoCAD involves multiple thousand line AutoLISP 
scripts iterating directories of a hundred drawings or so. With the move 
to Windows 7, I intermittently get permissions errors when re-saving 
files which causes things to require manual intervention and stuffs up 
my "start it, go to bed and wake up with it done" workflow.

I've confirmed that running exactly the same workflow on the same 
version of AutoCAD in S2k3 works fine, but in Windows 7 I might be 
unable to save a drawing. If I restart Samba, or re-try the save 4 or 5 
times it eventually works (which makes it _really_ hard to diagnose).

I've tried mdfs root = No, and various combinations of authentication 
options in my smb.conf, but the problem persists.

All my googling seems to point to absolute go/no-go issues rather than 
timing related so I've not had much luck. It *is* driving me insane and 
has resulted in me copying entire directories from the server to the VM, 
running the automation and copying it back (and hitting retry until the 
recalcitrant drawings can be overwritten).

Has _anyone_ bumped up against anything remotely similar, and come up 
with a fix that does not include upgrading to the latest Debian version? 
Let's just say systemd and I don't get along.

Brad.