Q I am running Red Hat Linux 9, and using the following command to map Windows Storage Server 2003.
mount -t smbfs -o username=<username> ,password=<passwd> //<ipaddress>/share /mntpoint
On the Windows side, I just make the share folder read-only. It successfully maps between Linux and Windows but recently Windows has begun to refuse the connection. When I check the Linux host, the mount is still there, and when I restart Windows I can read and write files to the directory without remounting on Linux. Before I restart Windows, I can't read the file in the mounted directory on Linux. I get the error message: 'LS: Stale file handle'. Is there any thing I can do on the Windows side? Is there any service that I can restart without rebooting Windows?
A You can always restart the File and Print Sharing service in Windows 2003, which I hope might solve your problem. It sounds as if a scheduled service, such as Windows Update, is causing the Windows system to fall over. Windows has a comprehensive event log, which may help you locate the specific issue. Our forums are full of people who are crazy enough to use Windows as a file server, so that may be a good way to find out if ther are any changes in Windows 2003 which need to be made in order to reliably mount Windows shares in Linux.