Files Not Visible in CSI SMB Mount Until External Copy (CIFS server is configured as ABE) – Even with cache=none, actimeo=0

[Israel-Shav]

Hi team,

I'm using the CSI SMB driver via the Helm chart version 1.16.0, and I've encountered an issue where new files created on the SMB server or by other clients do not appear inside the pod until I perform an operation like copying or touching a file from outside the pod.

🔍 Observations:

• Files created externally (e.g., directly on the SMB server or from another client) are not visible inside the pod.
• As soon as I duplicate the same file outside the pod, it becomes visible inside the pod.
• When new files created inside the pod (e.g., via touch dummy) cause hidden files to appear.
• Touching an existing file does not cause hidden files to appear.
• Running ls inside the pod does not show the new files.
• Running ls does show the file — indicating it exists but is not listed.
• This suggests a directory caching issue or a lack of refresh in the mounted volume.
• I have mounted two directories to two different shares, in first share I don't see the problem but in other I see it. The difference between the shares is access-based-enumuration (In share that has the ABE configuration I have the problem)
• Confirmed that the issue is not present when accessing the share from a Linux host directly using mount -t cifs.
• I see the same behavior in workers of k8s cluster, Im using tanzu manged cluster. vmware photon 5.0 linux installed in all workers_

🧪 What I’ve Tried:
Set the following mount options in the PersistentVolume:

mountOptions:
  - cache=none
  - actimeo=0
  - vers=3.0

Also tried:

mountOptions:
  - cache=strict
  - actimeo=0
  - mfsymlinks
  - noserverino
  - nostrictsync

I would appreciate any help possible, thank you very much for your help.

[Israel-Shav]

Hi all, we tested the scenario again with ubuntu hosts instead of vmware photon 5.0, and it works.
Maybe something buggy with vmware photon 5.0 and cifs protocol in some versions.