Known network issues, Mac client to Windows Server?

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eric - 17 Apr 2008 22:22 GMT

I am a programmer, but not so much a programming question, but I
couldn't find a mac.networking group.

What kind of issues am I going to run in to if I have a program with
an ISAM database, and the database is located on a Windows server, and
clients are both Windows and Mac clients. I know about the Windows to
Windows issues (like "opportunistic locking" bugs, and SMB 2.0 issues
with first Vista versions, Win98 server to WinXP client, etc)... but
what new issues will I have once I add Mac clients to the mix?

I'm guessing there must be some issues, because even right now I'm
using XCode on Mac, and my source files are located on a Windows
server, and I notice a lot of times I see multiple copies of the files
opened (viewing the open files on the Windows server)... and they stay
open even after I close XCode. Also, sometimes just copying files
from the Windows server to Mac will leave the file open.

Am I in for tons of data corruption? In most Windows-only networks
the app works fine. I'd feel pretty safe if there were a bunch of
people out there using something like FoxPro or MS Access in a mixed
environment like this (since they are major/popular ISAM databases
with file and record locking similar to my app)... but as far as I
know MS Access doesn't have a Mac version, so no Mac clients would be
accessing that database.

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David Phillip Oster - 18 Apr 2008 22:11 GMT

In article
<f51a485d-9a6a-4d4c-a466-9372b5e562b9@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,

> I am a programmer, but not so much a programming question, but I
> couldn't find a mac.networking group.
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> know MS Access doesn't have a Mac version, so no Mac clients would be
> accessing that database.

No, this is a programming question. Unless you are familiar with the
techniques for preserving consistency in a distributed database
(multiple concurrent access over unreliable connections) you will have
data corruption, whether it is a Windows only system or a mixed system.

(While there is no Micorosft Access, there is
/Applications/Utilities/ODBC Administrator, so a Mac user could install
an ODBC driver so a Mac application could manipulate a database hosted
on Windows.)

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eric - 22 Apr 2008 00:53 GMT

> No, this is a programming question. Unless you are familiar with the
> techniques for preserving consistency in a distributed database
> (multiple concurrent access over unreliable connections) you will have
> data corruption, whether it is a Windows only system or a mixed system.

I am. However, I also know that if the platform my code runs on has
issues/bugs, then my code will not work. For example, there are
plenty of bugs in SMB when a Windows XP PC connects to a Windows 98
file share. There are also bugs when using the IPX protocol between
certain versions of Windows PCs, especially if Norton anti-virus is
installed and not configured correctly (this was years ago that I
found these issues, so they may be fixed by now, not sure). Microsoft
still recommends you disable opportunistic locking when using MS
Access under certain conditions (also due to bugs, although they don't
call them "bugs"). Windows Vista had/has bugs in the new SMB 2.0 they
added, which may have been fixed in SP1.

I know Mac OS has had some bugs in SMB also, with certain releases...
but sometimes even if all "bugs" have been fixed, you run across other
items that just don't work, but then find out it is "by design". For
example, in programming terms, it is possible for fcntl to return
ENOTSUP for a F_SETLK command... am I going to run in to that with
certain "conflicts" or "limited" platform support in a mixed network
environment?

> (While there is no Micorosft Access, there is
> /Applications/Utilities/ODBC Administrator, so a Mac user could install
> an ODBC driver so a Mac application could manipulate a database hosted
> on Windows.)

Good to know -- now if I only knew if people were actually using this
on a regular basis and how well it really worked with concurrent and
heavy access.

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eric - 22 Apr 2008 17:00 GMT

> I am a programmer, but not so much a programming question, but I
> couldn't find a mac.networking group.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> with first Vista versions, Win98 server to WinXP client, etc)... but
> what new issues will I have once I add Mac clients to the mix?

For anyone else who may be wondering, these are the types of issues I
was wondering about, and now I know:

http://www.omnis.net/support/index.html?detail=osxfilelocking

http://www.briandwells.com/main/Blog/Entries/2006/10/5_Subversion,_Mac_OS_X,_and
_SMB.html

Due to these issues, and probably others if I was to search even more,
it seems to me that one would not want to use anything but very basic
file sharing in a mixed environment. Not the level of file sharing
that an ISAM database (FoxPro, Paradox, MS Access, DBase, etc) would
require to support concurrent connections.

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Mac Forum / Programming / Mac Programming / April 2008

Known network issues, Mac client to Windows Server?