Windows 7 Client 'sees' an old version of windows 2012 server share

Question

Hi All,
I have a problem which seems to be a common theme looking at other threads. Here's the overview of the problem:-
I have multiple windows 7 clients and a windows 8.1 client within a 2008 Server in a domain.
I also have a Windows 2012R2 Server which is not joined to the domain. There is a Share on the 2012R2 which has the Caching Option turned off. Everyone full control on Share & File permissions.
One of the Windows 7 machines in Explorer when it looks at
\\2012server\share sees an old version of the folder. It seems that SMB 2 chaching is working too well. Not even pressing F5 or clicking View, Refresh updates windows explorer.
It took a reboot to get the workstation to see the up to date contents of the share on the 2012 server.
We don't seem to have that behaviour with that client against the 2008 server.
I have seen this behaviour on another machine un-related to us at another location which was in a workgroup with a 2012 server and no domain.
Questions:-
Is there some sort of problem with Windows 7 workstations working against 2012 Servers in a non-domain setting or is it just Windows 7 against 2012 servers period?
I understand that Windows 7 utilises SMB1 & SMB2. SMB2 introduced caching. If the server has turned off the share cache option should the client cache the contents of the share or the information about the files & folders & 'file not found'
information?
I want to open a file handle to a file on a network share so I can read and write data to it. But I also want to know that when I look at the folder to open the file I'm actually looking at the live version of the folder and files in the folder and
not a cached version of the folder. If it's a cached version the file might be there already but I won't see it.
Is there an API call that tells the client to get a fresh view of the server share so I can be absolutely sure that when I look for a file on the server I'm getting the correct answer and not one from cache.
I first posted the question with the same subject "Windows 7 Client 'sees' an old version of windows 2012 server share" in the Windows 7 Networking Fourm
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/23bf3627-987b-4c27-8062-85a284a2cda4/windows-7-client-sees-an-old-version-of-windows-2012-server-share?forum=w7itpronetworking and it was suggested I repost in here. Please do take the time to read
the thread which will save time with suggestions that have already been covered.
As the computers that can be affected by this problem are not mine I cannot enforce or guarantee that any of my 'client base' will apply any hotfixes. I will also not have the ability to tweak registry settings as I can't guarantee Admin Access.
It seems that we need to go back to SMB1 as all the tweaks to SMB since those days have introduced problems with the basic requirement of sharing files from a share on a server for Read/Write purposes. I have tried turning a network back to SMB1 and that
has resolved a lot of the issues but then I found a post/MS blog that states not to leave the network on SMB1
The Caching option of the share had already been turned off. Surely Windows clients should not cache any information about the share but I think that is not the case.
Thanks is advance
Robert

Answer 1

Hi Shaon,
Thanks for looking into this.
If this is a known issue, why isn't the hotfix rolled into a general windows update if this is a known problem? However this doesn't just affect domain joined workstations.
Surely it's basic functionality for a networked computer to access files and folders on a network file server. It's what networks were invented for at the end of the day.
I am unable to apply hotfixes to these computers that are having the problem due to the fact they are not mine but my customers.
At one of my customers sites I disabled SMB2 from the server and network clients as well as disabling the network adapter power saving option. This seemed to resolve the issues that I saw on one client that seemed to be 30 minutes behind the rest of
the network.  The hotfix you link to states that it is for Domain joined computers. At my customer site the PC's are not in a domain at all, just a workgroup with workstations and a 2012r2 server. Will the hotfix be applicable to non-domain machines?
Also many clients seemed to loose the file handle to an open file on the server. I'll get them to turn SMB2 back on at some point after I send out some updates but all the problems I see seem to be caused by the caching functions in SMB2. SMB1 is good and
stable. It's SMB2 that seems to be causing the problems as it was designed from the ground up for caching.
Has this networking issue been resolved in Windows 8, 8.1 and 10?
As I am unable to apply a hotfix to 1000's of PC's that are not mine, is there an API call or something where I can get the windows client to stop lying and get me the current state of a folder on the server?
Will Turning off ClientSideCaching fix the issue? HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MrxSmb\Parameters\
CSCEnabled
Or will every machine need to be tuned individually according to the following guide:-
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/7bd9978c-69b4-42bf-90cd-fc7541ccb663/forum-faq-troubleshooting-network-file-copy-slowness?forum=winserverPN ?
Robert