NAS and CIFS protocol

[kamielvdz]

I seem to be experiencing issues with my set up of a NAS for the file repository (alfdata) of Alfresco.
I connected a NAS using autofs on a linux server and used the CIFS protocol to mount the disk. This works, but sometimes Alfresco cannot detect file uploads so Rules do not get triggered.
I am pretty sure it is not an Alfresco problem, but rather a problem of the NAS or it's implementation of the CIFS protocol, but I am sure if I ask the problem to my NAS vendor he'll blame Alfresco.

Has anyone had any similar experiences or gotten a similar set up to work flawlessly? Should I rather be using NFS to connect to a NAS?

Any pointers are appreciated

[mrogers]

"Alfresco cannot detect file uploads so Rules do not get triggered."

Are you talking about Alfresco's rules?   And how are you uploading - via windows 7 DND, Alfresco share, Save from word etc?

If it is Alfresco's rules you are talking about I don't see how the NAS could affect it.

[kamielvdz]

We use Share to upload the new documents. When we e.g. upload 10 documents at once, one or two of them do not trigger the Rules attached. It happens with any type of rule. Which file or how many files differs every time and sometimes they all work.

I have switched back all the data to a (virtual) linux drive and now all the rules works again and we aren't experiencing any problems anymore. We would however like to use our nas, because we are running out of room om the linux drive.

So the only two variables that changed are the storage drive and protocol to connect with the storage drive. One of them must be it I think.

[mrogers]

Are there any errors in your alfresco.log?

[kamielvdz]

Unfortunately no errors what so ever…

[rdanner]

I seem to be experiencing issues with my set up of a NAS for the file repository (alfdata) of Alfresco.
I connected a NAS using autofs on a linux server and used the CIFS protocol to mount the disk. This works, but sometimes Alfresco cannot detect file uploads so Rules do not get triggered.
I am pretty sure it is not an Alfresco problem, but rather a problem of the NAS or it's implementation of the CIFS protocol, but I am sure if I ask the problem to my NAS vendor he'll blame Alfresco.

Has anyone had any similar experiences or gotten a similar set up to work flawlessly? Should I rather be using NFS to connect to a NAS?

Any pointers are appreciated

This is a very interesting thread.  I would love to see the error that's going on.   I suppose if you debug the rule fires for every single file? 

On NFS .. My gut tells me production-wise NO.  NFS mounts are just not reliable in my experience and with Alfresco access to Disk is everything. 

ON NFS for debugging this issue: Sure why not – but I wouldn't test in production.

[kamielvdz]

The problem has been solved although the exact cause is still unknown, but the NAS or Alfresco aren't to blame.

Because we could not replicate the problem on our test environment(s), we thought it must have had to do with the OS version or libraries installed on the server. Our production server used Centos 5.6 en our test servers 5.7 en 5.8. Once we did a full update of the server and libraries the problem was solved.

Which package was causing the issue, we couldn't pinpoint, would cost us to much time…

So the lesson we learned: more frequent updates.