Mixed OSX with SMB- Now monterey - Read only issues

[aukmsp]

Hi, i am a technician in UK. (I may put this on other forms to)

I have a customer who has been dogged by "read only" issues on SMB shares.



Network =

10 iMacs (not AD joined, just "connect to server")

1 x Windows Server 2016 SMB share

Users work as "standard users" and dont have admin to their local machines.



History =

It started back in MacOS Sierra

Highlight issue was this > https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/56405-read-only-vwx-files-on-windows-server/

After Much invetigation

(wireshark, trying afp, disable smb 1 etc, changing permissions) we found the fix (as suggested by vectorworks support) was that all the Mac machine on the network had to be all the exact same macos version. (we standardized on MacOS Hi-Sierra) then a majority of issues went - network was then very usable



Roll on 3 years ago =

We upgraded all machines to "Catalina" did it in one weekend

Sophos Antivirus put on all machines

No other changes to the network - All good all network issues were resolved.



Last year -

Upgraded customers main application "Vector works" from 2018 to 2021 - all good no issues



This last month & now =

Weve put some new machines into the network and started upgrading existing machines to Monterey

So we have a mixture of MACOS on the machines (Big Sur, Catalina & Monterey)

No server changes have been made (other than usual windows updates)

All machines built from fresh, minimal apps installed - so we are sure only variation is different OS On the network.

So now we are absolutely dogged with "file is read only" when opening many varied files on the network. Even machines that have been untouched for years (with Catalina on ) now get the error.



So My Question >>

Is there any truth / ground in my conclusion that this issue is when different macos is on a network.

Can i expect this all to be resolved when i put Monterey on all the machines

Any other ideas?



I would love to see some really in depth trouble shooting guide for MACOSX & SMB with expected pcaps, advanced debugging etc etc.. (I have regular SMB / MAC issues with other customers as i travel)


Previously posted here > https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254166134 - trying this forum


I can provide more information - I have screen shots & pcaps of this issue thats been running 5 - 6 years. Has been googled to death.

 

[Slartibart]

Unmount the SMB-share on all Macs.

On Windows:

• Don’t use the default “guest”-access, use a dedicated user to access the share.
• Then Rright-click on the shared drive, and choose Properties. Go to Security tab. Click Advanced, then Change Permissions.Highlight the user who is used by the Macs to access (if necessary create a user for this beforehand), and click Edit. Choose This folder, subfolders and files under Applies to: Choose Full Control under Basic Permissions. Hit OK.

This might be required occasionally after a Windows update.


On the Macs:

• Use the user/password you assigned on Windows to mount and access the SMB-share.

 

[aukmsp]

Afternoon, many thanks for response,

Ref the suggestion > yes we dont use guest.
I have checked share and ntfs on the share, all correct, i have then ticked "replace all child objects" and applied so reset.

Just to stress no changes have been made server side, just a different MACOS.
The issue still persists

ref your point "On the Macs" - are you saying ht logon the the actual imac should be the same as the windows user to access the SMB share?
This has never been the case. By all means im willing to try it how should this affect things?

Regards

 

[Slartibart]

ref your point "On the Macs" - are you saying ht logon the the actual imac should be the same as the windows user to access the SMB share?
This has never been the case. By all means im willing to try it how should this affect things?

I was referring to the possibility that you have several SMB-user accounts, especially when you would have allowed guest-access and when the Macs can’t connect, the shares become available at some point later as guest.

 

[Slartibart]

Can you kindly try to mount the share from the terminal:

mount_smbfs //User:Pass@SERVERNAME/SharedFolderName /Volumes/SharedFolderName

? Is there any error?

 

[Brian33]

Although this SMB issue appears to happen with folders and not files, could it be relevant? A folder created by one client is marked "in use" or "busy" for any other client until the original client disconnects from the server:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/monterey-12-4-smb-folder-in-use-when-trying-to-delete.2351125/

In your scenario, if the file were "locked" by the creator in some way as described, perhaps it would be reported to the next user that tries to open it as "read-only" instead of "busy" or "in use" (depending upon the software).

Oddly, although I easily reproduced the issue in that thread five days ago, today I failed to reproduce it, and I don't know why I'm getting different results. It must be a bit more complicated than it first appears...