Comment 10 for bug 500195

I can confirm similar findings even on newer software, although my findings were slightly different.

Server = FreeNAS 8 (64 bit). Running a ZFS Raid1 Array on two 500gb drives.
Client = Ubuntu 11.04 (64 bit).
Running the latest SMB/CIFS available on 11.04.
(I also duplicated the issue on a different FreeNAS 8 (64 bit) box using two 80gb drives in ZFS Raid1 as well)

I ran into the issue spoken above, though I didn't run into it at 627 files. I ran into it at 575 files. From there I got prompted "Invalid Argument." If I had 574 files on the server (all 1.0MB in size), I could browse just fine. Once I added the 575th file, I could not browse. If I SSH'd into the FreeNAS box and removed one single file, I was able to browse again.

I got the same results with PCMan, Thunar, Nautilus, and Dolphin. When I repeated the same steps with an Ubuntu 10.04 machine being the server instead of FreeNAS 8, I did NOT exhibit any issues. I was able to write thousands of files with no issues at all. These files were written from an Ubuntu 11.04 (64 bit) client.

Oddly, I did NOT have this issue when I connected to the FreeNAS server from a Windows 7 client. It seems to be something to do with Samba/CIFS in Linux (Ubuntu in particular is what I tested) versus FreeNAS 8.

I formatted my FreeNAS 8 box and put FreeNAS 0.7.2 (64 bit) on it. I also set up a ZFS based array. I did NOT exhibit any problems there. FreeNAS 0.7.2 performed as expected well beyond thousands of files.

Due to all of the scenarios I applied these findings at, it's definitely something with FreeNAS 8 and/or ZFS. I'm doubtful it's a ZFS issue due to my ZFS success on 0.7.2. I made the FreeNAS developers aware in the "freenas" IRC chat room. I'm not sure what movement will happen from here, as it is out of my hands.

Until then, I will be utilizing Linux on my file server instead, as I have not had any CIFS/SMB related issues to any degree in the Linux-to-Linux or Windows-to-Linux scenarios.