[ale] CIFS <-> NFS bridge?

[Dylan Northrup]

I am in a situation where I need to have a system to translate between a
CIFS file server and an NFS client.  I found Trellis NAS Bridge Appliance
(TNBA) and Gateway for NFS from Microsoft when searching google, but neither
seem to allow re-exportation of shared filesystems via NFS.

Let me explain what I want to do so folks can poke holes in my ideas.  We
have a file server that can only be accessed via CIFS and a linux server at
a 2.4 kernel level.  The files we're accessing are media files and are
typically greater than 2G in size.  We tested the most recent samba release
on the 2.4 kernel and it does not properly handle files of that size.
Accessing large files via NFS does not seem to have that problem.  Updating
the kernel on the linux box would require an extensive certification process
for the software we are running on it and is something we'd like to avoid, 
if possible.

We've tested putting a linux server with an updated kernel between the file
server and the older box.  While I was able to mount SMB shares and properly
view them as well as export directories via NFS, I was unable to access any
of the SMB files via NFS (client timed out on the NFS calls).

We'd like to have a box sitting between the file server and the linux server 
that will allow mounting of SMB shares and re-exporting them via NFS.
Replacing the file server isn't an option.

-- 
Dylan Northrup - docx at io.com - http://www.io.com/~docx/
"Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's
  really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy'