AFP Folder Display Problem

[Sean.McCauley]

I have a FreeNas server running stable FreeNas FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201509022158 (SuperMicro 32GB memory, 3-3TB drive setup ZFS1) with AFP sharing, being accessed by Macs running os 10.7.

I've run into random problems where you'll navigate into a folder from the mac's finder and see nothing in the folder. But if I ssh or use the shell access from the web gui I can see the files/subfolders inside the problem folder. I've tested this from a mac running os 10.9 with the same problem.

I've found that if from the mac's finder I create another folder at the same level as the problem folder, then the mac can go into the problem folder and see all of the files/subfolders.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Nick2253]

I know that this isn't exactly a solution, but is there a reason you are using AFP instead of CIFS?

 

[Sean.McCauley]

Good question. Main reason for using AFP has been that our users are Mac's and in the past AFP had better throughput for the Mac's. Haven't tested speeds recently. One big think is having to fix files and folders that currently are using characters that can be used in AFP but can't be used in SMB.

 

[Nick2253]

When the missing folder happens, does that impact all the computers, or is it just one computer?

 

[Sean.McCauley]

I would say all computers, haven't tested it on all as there's about 20 at each respective site. But I've tried it from about 4 different computers when it happens. One other thing I have tried is the simplest restarting the computers.

Thanks for the questions, it get's my brain to thinking.

 

[Nick2253]

I'm trying to rack my brain and figure out other possible reasons for the issue, but I'm thinking that it must lie somewhere in the netatalk service or in the communication channel between the client and the netatalk service.

If there's any regularity on what folder is having problems, I wondering what you'd see if you share it with CIFS. It's OK to share a folder with multiple protocols as long as you are just doing reading. So I'd share our mystery folder with both AFP and CIFS, but only use CIFS for read-only troubleshooting this weird issue.

 

[Sean.McCauley]

I did find that when using SMB the folders show up fine. Which pointed me toward the folders that disappear and get a generic icon have Adobe Indesign files that when opened are creating a indesign lock file and the characters in the filename of the lock file are causing the folders to disappear or change to a generic icon possibly due to the vol charset.

After doing some more research I think the current /usr/local/etc/afp.conf is using UTF8 encoding. From what I've read http://www.nicksherlock.com/2014/01/freenas-zfs-afp-filesharing-rsync-bad-idea/ I need to change the encoding to UTF8-MAC. Tried the change as talked about at the aforementioned web-site but the I got a message that utf8-MAC was an unknown encoding. I changed the script this morning to UTF8-MAC all caps and will turn off and on the AFP service tonight to re-create the /usr/local/etc/afp.conf .

 

[Derek Humes]

Did you ever find a fix for this? I have a user currently affected - her self-titled directory "disappeared" over the weekend when viewing via AFP. When browsing CLI or SMB, it is there and everything is fine. I have restarted AFP service, but no change. She does use InDesign, but I don't see any .indd files in the root of her directory. There are .indd files in the subdirectories beneath...but could those cause the top-level folder to disappear? I would think only the subdirectory would be affected, but I could easily be wrong. We are a mixed environment, with AFP and CIFS being used to share the same content...which I read is a no-no. It is in our plans to develop a transition to everyone on CIFS/SMB in the future, as long as that proves the best route after we research further. All of our Macs in the office will be at OS X 10.11 or higher, and Windows 7 minimum, though we only have a handful.

Back to my original issue, currently I am just copying over the contents to a new folder, which we can currently see. If it is in fact a bad .indd file, I would think that when I copy over the contents however that the folder may disappear again?

We have not performed the UTF8-MAC encoding change mentioned.

 

[Sean.McCauley]

I switched everyone to SMB as I ended up having some Windows users that needed access. Before doing this I ran A Better Finder Rename program and used Make file names Windows NTS/SMB compatible via the AFP share. Then turned off AFP and switched to SMB only.