Novell Dynamic File Services 1.5 Readme

4.1 The Service Controller Does Not Start After an Upgrade

After upgrading from Dynamic File Services 1.0 to Dynamic File Services 1.5, the Service Controller might not restart automatically.

To resolve this problem, manually start the Service Controller. Administrator privileges are required.

4.2 Disabling Simple File Sharing on Windows XP

You can test Dynamic File Services features on a Windows XP workstation by installing the Service component along with the Management component. Using the Service component on a workstation is allowed for testing purposes only, and is not supported for a production environment. In order to use the Service component on a Windows XP computer, you must disable simple file sharing.

By default, simple file sharing is enabled on Windows XP computers if the computer is not a member of an Active Directory domain. Simple file sharing allows you to easily share folders in a workgroup, but you cannot prevent specific users and groups from gaining access to your shared folders. If simple file sharing is disabled, you can specify which users and groups have access to shared folders on your computer, and those users must provide a password to gain access to your shared folder.

When you run the Dynamic File Service on a Windows XP computer, the Windows simple file sharing feature must be disabled. This allows the Service to control access to files and folders in a pair. You cannot set up pairs and policies until simple file sharing is disabled.

To disable the Use simple file sharing feature:

5.1 Service Can Hang When the Service Is Stopped or Restarted

If you are using SMB2 on the server and attempt to stop or restart the Dynamic File Service without first quiescing the service as described in Prerequisites for Stopping or Restarting the Service, the Service cannot be stopped and the Service hangs.

To avoid this problem, do not stop or restart the Dynamic File Service while the Service is scanning pairs, the Enforcer is moving files in a policy run, users are accessing files via the merged view, or management tasks for pairs and policies are in progress.

Quiescing the Service before stopping or restarting it is required for both SMB2 and SMB1. However, the Service hang issue does not occur for servers using SMB1.

5.2 Network or File Permission Error When Saving a File from Microsoft Word 2007/2010

An error might occur when a user attempts to save a file from Microsoft Word 2007/2010 when the source file resides on a local secondary location in a pair. The error message is:

There has been a network or file permission error. The network connection may be lost. (path\filename)

This problem has been observed when Dynamic File Services is running on a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 server that is configured with SMB2.

The problem does not occur on Windows Server 2003 servers. The problem does not occur on a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 server that is configured with SMB1. This issue also does not occur if the documents reside on the primary volume.

To avoid this problem, you can configure the local secondary location like a remote secondary. This option works only if the secondary location is on a different drive than the primary. Create a share at the secondary path, publish the share in Active Directory, then use the UNC path (\\server\secondary_share such as \\127.0.0.1\secondary) for the secondary location when you create the pair.

To avoid the problem if the Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 server is using SMB2, you can make sure that your policies do not move documents to a secondary location that might be edited with Microsoft Word 2007/2010. For example, documents for archival can be moved, but not documents that are active.

To avoid the problem if the Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 server is using SMB2 and you want to store Word documents on the secondary location, you can downgrade the server-side SMB from SMB2 to SMB1:

5.3 Word Does Not Handle File Locking Correctly If the File Resides on a Secondary Location

If a file resides on the secondary location in a pair, Microsoft Word 2007/2010 does not report the file lock correctly if the file is already open for writing by another user. The second user should receive a “Read Only” option when opening the file, but no such message is given. If the second user attempts to save the file, the following error is returned:

There has been a network or file permissions error.

The user is prompted to save the file with a new name. The renamed file is saved to the primary location in the pair.

If a Word 2003 formatted file resides on the secondary location in a pair, Microsoft Word 2007/2010 on a Windows XP workstation does not report any warnings or errors if the file is already open for writing by another user. On Vista, Word 2007/2010 never returns an error, but Word hangs and never opens the file.

This issue applies to both Windows Server 2003 and 2008 servers.

This file lock issue does not occur if the documents reside on the primary location.

To avoid the file lock issue, you can make sure that your policies do not move documents to a secondary location that might be edited with Microsoft Word 2007/2010. For example, documents for archival can be moved, but not documents that are active.

5.4 Excel Does Not Handle File Locking Correctly If the File Resides on a Secondary Location

If a file resides on the secondary location in a pair, Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 does not handle file locking correctly for the first user to open the file. If a second user opens the file as Read Only, the first user should be able to save the file; however, the first user cannot save the file until the second user closes the file.

This issue applies to both Windows Server 2003 and 2008 servers.

This file lock issue does not occur if the documents reside on the primary location.

To avoid the file lock issue, you can make sure that your policies do not move documents to the secondary location that might be edited with Microsoft Excel 2007/2010. For example, documents for archival can be moved, but not documents that are active.