Operating environment & Known Issues/Limitations Rev 1.

Operating environment & Known Issues/Limitations

Operating Environment
SMB Client version 2.1 (7.1.302.x):

• Windows 2012/2016 servers

• smbc filesets 7.1.302.x
• AIX® 7.1 TL05 onwards

SMB Client version 3.0.2 (7.1.302.x):

• Windows 2012/2016/2019 servers

• smbc filesets 7.1.302.x
• AIX® 7.1 TL05 onwards

SMB Client version 2.1 (7.2.302.x):

• Windows 2012/2016 servers

• smbc filesets 7.2.302.x
• AIX® 7.2 TL04 onwards
• AIX® 7.3 TL0 onwards

SMB Client version 3.0.2 (7.2.302.x):

• Windows 2012/2016/2019 servers

• smbc filesets 7.2.302.x
• AIX® 7.2 TL04 onwards
• AIX® 7.3 TL0 onwards

Issues/Limitations

Sl.no Issue Description/Workaround

1 Occasional 1. On execution of "ls" or any command after a server reboot
Inconsistent behavior or when the mount is already in invalid state will return failure
Work around: Re-execution of the “ls" or any command the
second time
2. "rmdir" and "rm" in a loop over empty directory and files
may fail intermittently.
3. running "rm -rf *” multiple times may fail saying nothing to
delete (files present).

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2 Operations not chmod

available(limitations) chown
with smb client on csum (maps files into shared memory, which is not supported)
AIX Creation of hard links
Creation of special files (FIFOs, named pipes, and named
sockets)
Forced umount of SMB shares (umount -f)

3 Oplocks Enabled by default (smbclient uses this functionality only when

file leasing functionality is disabled either server or client side).

4. File leasing Enabled by default

5. Durable handles Enabled by default
6 Slow IO with When multiple clients/applications are reading/writing data
multiple parallelly with multiple threads to files on different mount points for
clients/applications longer time, read/write operations may become very slow.
7 "cp -r" command used SMB windows server behaviour being case-insensitive, AIX SMB
with same file names client is also case-insensitive which mean words "AIX" and "aix" are
in different cases. same. AIX cp command (/usr/bin/cp) expects case-sensitive
directory names. cp command has a check for infinite loop with the
expectation of case-sensitive file system. With case-insensitive file
system like SMB, cp command will go into infinite loop creating a
directory inside other directory if characters in directory names are
same even if they are in different case. SMB client has no control
over this behaviour of cp command.
Do not run command like "cp -r aix AIX" in case-insensitive SMB file
system.

Behaviour of "cp" in case sensitive JFS2 file system:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /home
# mkdir aix

(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /home

# cp -r aix aix
cp: 0653-441 aix/aix is a descendant of aix.
Copying results in infinite loop(not copied.)

Behaviour of "cp" in case-insensitive SMB filesystem (mount point

/mnt1):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /mnt1
# ls

(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /mnt1

# mkdir aix

(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /mnt1

# cp -r aix AIX (Command hangs, and interrupted using "Ctrl + c")

(130) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /mnt1

# ls

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aix

(0) root @ xxxx06: 7.2.0.0: /mnt1

# find .
.
./aix
./aix/aix
./aix/aix/aix
./aix/aix/aix/aix
8 File and directory The SMB client supports case insensitive file and directory
names names only.
9 Wildcard characters The behavior of wildcard characters with file and directory
with file and names is mostly the same as with the previous SMB client
directory names (bos.cifs_fs.rte). Wildcard characters are handled by the AIX
shell, which only supports case sensitive file and directory
name matching. This can cause limitations with case
insensitive, partial file or directory name matching with
wildcard characters, some of which are listed here.

1. The “ls” command does not list some or all files and
directories when case insensitive, partial file or
directory names are used with wildcard characters.

Examples:
a. The directory Dir1 in an SMB share contains these
files
abc abcd abdf abdx bda

$ cd /mnt/Dir1
$ ls
abc abcd abdf abdx bda

List the files using wildcard characters.

$ ls Ab*
Ab*

The shell does not match any file names because

its file name expansion is case sensitive. The
pattern “Ab*” is sent to the SMB server, where the
case insensitive match is successful, which causes
the “ls” command to print “Ab*”.

b. The directory Dir2 in an SMB share contains these

mixed case files.
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

$ cd /mnt/Dir2

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Operating environment & Known Issues/Limitations Rev 1.0

$ ls
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

List the files with wildcard characters.

$ ls a*
abc acd adf adx axd

Running “ls a*” only lists the files that start with a lower
case “a” because the shell is case sensitive when
matching file names. The AIX shell is able to find some
matches and it lists those matched files only.

2. The “rm” and “rmdir” commands do not remove some

or all files and directories when case insensitive, partial
file or directory names are used with wildcard
characters.

Examples:
a. The directory Dir3 in an SMB share contains these
mixed case files.
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

$ cd /mnt/Dir3
$ ls
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

Remove the files with wildcard characters.

$ rm a*
$ ls
AXX Adx Agm Agx

Running “rm a*” only removes the files that start

with a lower case “a” because the shell is case
sensitive when matching file names. The AIX shell is
able to find some matches and it removes those
matched files.

b. The directory Dir4 in an SMB share contains these

mixed case subdirectories.
ABC acd

$ cd /mnt/Dir4
$ ls
ABC acd

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Operating environment & Known Issues/Limitations Rev 1.0

Remove the directories with wildcard characters.

$ rmdir A*
$ ls
acd

Running “rmdir A*” only removes the directory

that starts with an upper case “A” because the shell
is case sensitive when matching directory names.
The AIX shell is able to find some matches and it
removes those matched directories.

3. The “mv” command does not rename or move some or

all files and directories when case insensitive, partial
file or directory name are used with wildcard
characters.

Examples:
a. The directory Dir3 in an SMB share contains these
mixed case files.
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

$ cd /mnt/Dir3
$ ls
AXX Adx Agm Agx abc acd adf adx axd

rename the files with wildcard characters.

$ mv a* ym
Usage: mv [-I] [ -d | -e] [-i | -f] [-
E{force|ignore|warn}] [--] src target
or: mv [-I] [-d | -e] [-i | -f] [-
E{force|ignore|warn}] [--] src1 ...
srcN directory

b. The directory Dir4 in an SMB share contains these

mixed case files.
AXX Adx abc

$ cd /mnt/Dir4
$ ls
AXX Adx abc

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rename the files with wildcard characters.

$ mv a* xyz
$ ls
AXX Adx xyz

c. The directory Dir5 in an SMB share contains these

mixed case files.
AXX Adx

$ cd /mnt/Dir5
$ ls
AXX Adx

rename the files with wildcard characters.

$ mv a* xyz
mv: 0653-401 Cannot rename a* to xyz:
A file or directory in
the path name does not exist.

d. The directory Dir6 in an SMB share contains these

mixed case files.
ABC AXX Adx Agm Agx ab abc acdc adf
adx axd

$ cd /mnt/Dir6
$ ls
ABC AXX Adx Agm Agx ab
abc acdc adf adx axd

create a directory inside Dir6 .

$ mkdir Xyz

move the files inside directory Xyz with wildcard

characters.

$ mv a* ./Xyz
$ ls
ABC AXX Adx Agm Agx Xyz
e. The directory Dir7 in an SMB share contains these
mixed case subdirectories.
ABC acd

$ cd /mnt/Dir7

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$ ls
ABC acd

Rename the directories with wildcard characters.

$ mv A* XYZ
$ ls
XYZ acd

10 File move operation The “mv” command to move a file across different mount
across different points of same share failed and post this operation source file
mount points of is getting removed.
same share
Examples:
a. Mount same share “share1” to different mount
points “/mnt1” and “/mnt2”.
windows_smbserver /share1 /mnt1
smbc pver=3.0.2,wrkgrp=SMB_21.FVT

windows_smbserver /share1 /mnt2

smbc pver=3.0.2,wrkgrp=SMB_21.FVT

cd to “mnt1” mount point and move a file from

that mount to other mount point “mnt2”.

$ cd /mnt1
$ ls fileB
fileB

$ mv fileB /mnt2
mv: /mnt1/fileB: The file access
permissions do not allow the specified
action.

Check the existence of file in source mount point

“mnt1”

$ ls fileB
ls: 0653-341 The file fileB does not
exist.

11 Limited Live Kernel SMB 3.0.2 supports the Live Update operation with limited
Update support functions. In an SMB 3.0.2 client, the Live Update operation is
allowed only when no SMB shares are mounted; otherwise, the
Live Update operation fails. Therefore, you must unmount all
SMB shares before you start the Live Update operation and
mount the SMB shares after the Live Update operation is

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Operating environment & Known Issues/Limitations Rev 1.0

completed. During the Live Update operation, the SMB shares

must not be mounted.

Windows Server Configuration (Various server parameters under which Beta package has
been tested)

Parameter : Value
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-SmbServerConfiguration

AnnounceServer : False
AsynchronousCredits : 64
AutoShareServer : True
AutoShareWorkstation : True
CachedOpenLimit :5
AnnounceComment :
EnableDownlevelTimewarp : False
EnableLeasing : True
EnableMultiChannel : True
EnableStrictNameChecking : True
AutoDisconnectTimeout : 200
DurableHandleV2TimeoutInSeconds : 30
EnableAuthenticateUserSharing : False
EnableForcedLogoff : True
EnableOplocks : True
EnableSecuritySignature : True
ServerHidden : False
IrpStackSize : 15
KeepAliveTime :2
MaxChannelPerSession : 32
MaxMpxCount : 50
MaxSessionPerConnection : 16384
MaxThreadsPerQueue : 20
MaxWorkItems :1
NullSessionPipes :
NullSessionShares :
OplockBreakWait : 35
PendingClientTimeoutInSeconds : 120
RequireSecuritySignature : False
EnableSMB1Protocol : False
EnableSMB2Protocol : True
Smb2CreditsMax : 32000
Smb2CreditsMin : 20000
SmbServerNameHardeningLevel : 0

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TreatHostAsStableStorage : False
ValidateAliasNotCircular : True
ValidateShareScope : True
ValidateShareScopeNotAliased : True
ValidateTargetName : True
EncryptData : False/True*
RejectUnencryptedAccess : False/True*

SMB( AIX) client parameters/tunables:

Parameter : Value
# smbctune -l
Current SMBC tunables are -
SMBC Lookup cache size : 32
SMBC Max concurrent mount :8
SMBC max connections : 0
SMBC Request timeout : 0
SMBC Kerberos Lifetime : 0
SMBC Kerberos Renew Till time : 0
SMBC Oplock Enable : 1
SMBC File Lease Enable : 1
SMBC Enable syslog : 1
SMBC Protocol Version : auto/3.0.2/2.1**
SMBC Signing : enabled/required**
SMBC Secure Negotiate : desired/required/disabled**
SMBC Encryption : desired/required/disabled**

*Tested for both False and True values.

**Tested for all supported values mentioned here.

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