OT: Searching SMB volumes with Lion or Mountain Lion

There's an ongoing thread on Apple Discussions about it.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194502?start=60&tstart=0
The last one points to a utility "EasyFind" which works. It's a free app from the MAS.
I just tested in in 10.7.5 and it does work. I confirm your problem - it has many online explanations and reasons for being broke, but since I don't use SMB often, I did not see any "fix" per se in a short online search.
EasyFind: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/easyfind/id411673888?mt=12
FWIW, I can search SMB volumes on an Xsan.

Good luck.

EasyFind has been a good solution for searching our SMB shares. For those who want a non-App Store version, see here:

http://www.devontechnologies.com/index.php?id=146

Thanks for the confirmation. I read through the entire apple.com discussion before posting here. I had already put EasyFind in a Self Service policy but it sounds like end users like to search for files within an app like textedit for example. Having them use a 3rd party app like EasyFind is kind of a tough sell after it 'Just working' prior to their upgrade to Lion.

More testing results:

I setup a test mac server and attached a Firewire drive to it. On that drive I created and shared out 2 folders: 1 AFP and 1 SMB.

I put the entire FW drive into Spotlight Privacy to prevent any indexing. I created a few files/folders within the AFP and SMB shared folders.

I was expecting clients to only be able to search files on the AFP share and not the SMB share. What ended up happening is I can find files using both AFP and SMB.

How many people are using Windows file servers? Are you able to search if you connect to them using SMB?

I'm not too excited about the idea of having to introduce a third party product like Extremez-IP into the mix.

@frozenarse The reason you can Spotlight search both AFP and SMB on your Mac server is because the server creates and manages the Spotlight index. SMB shares, EMC CLARiiON, NetApp, etc., don't support Spotlight searching.

ExtremeZ-IP adds AFP and also creates and manages the Spotlight index, so Macs can use it. If you re-share, you lose the Spotlight functionality...we had calls with GroupLogic, they *may* add this in a future release.

Don

Don- That is exactly what I was thinking. I thought that by adding the entire FW drive to Spotlight Privacy it would NOT create a spotlight index and kind of mimic what a Windows server would act like.

Any suggestions? Are users pretty much stuck with having to use a 3rd party app like EasyFind?

I'm running into this issue as well. I gave our graphic designers the "Easy Find" app but they didn't take well to the fact you can only browse in List form. They prefer thumbnails for quick visuals for ON AIR. They said thanks but no thanks. We are using a Windows server for 1 item of their workflow and apparently its a major one. I'm stuck unable to spotlight an SMB server on 10.7.5.

@hbon We provided options to our client, either pay for ExtremeZ-IP or move the files to an OS X Server. They opted for the later.

BTW, after our calls with Apple, NetAPP and GroupLogic, the following patch was released that lists a "fix" for Spotlight searches of SMB shares:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1583 Resolve an issue using Spotlight to search an SMB server

@boettchs The fix didn't work for us either. :( Bug Report 12679722 submitted today.

Don

Apple had me run this command and attach resulting bundle file to the Bug Report (12679722):

sudo mddiagnose

I would suggest anyone else who is frustrated about inability to search SMB shares, where Spotlight is supposed to look for an index -- if one does not exist fall back to simple Find function -- does not work, OPEN A BUG REPORT!!!

We've got their attention...the more BUG REPORTS are submitted, the more attention it gets. ;)

Don