Tech Info 075: Mac OS X 10.3 clients disconnecting from AFP servers

HELIOS Tech Info #075

Wed, 11 Feb 2004

Mac OS X 10.3 clients disconnecting from AFP servers

During multiple copy or read/write operations from / to one or more AFP servers, it can happen that Mac OS X 10.2/10.3 clients disconnect from the AFP server(s).
This can occur with Apple file servers as well with HELIOS file servers.
HELIOS has reported this to Apple who is currently investigating this.

Possible workarounds:

  • Limit the number of concurrent read/write/copy operations of the Mac OS X client to file servers
  • Decrease the "dsiblocksize" value of EtherShare to 8192 or 16384. See "dsiblocksize" in the "HELIOS Base" manual
  • Increase TCP receive/send buffer space in the UNIX server. See the UNIX server documentation of your OS vendor.

Note:

Changing dsiblocksize or TCP buffer sizes can change network or system performance.
We recommend that every customer who encounters the disconnection problem provides feedback to their Apple representative so that Apple can recognize this as a general problem encountered by many Apple customers.
As soon as a workaround or fix is available, this information will be distributed by a follow up to this Tech Info.
Apple released Mac OS X 10.3.5 which addresses an issue that could result in connection loss while copying files to/from AFP servers.
In case connection losses are still encountered after successfully updating to Mac OS X 10.3.5, this must be investigated with the responsible HELIOS & Apple dealer.