Nigel-- Thanks for your reply. Wild speculation is about all I have right now. :) I believe actimeo=0 means "never cache"; also, I added this argument *after* I first noticed the problem, so actimeo=0 almost certainly isn't the (whole) problem. Nonetheless, I may try removing actimeo=0 and leaving forcedirectio and see if that changes things any. Thanks for the suggestion. Chris St. Pierre Unix Systems Administrator Nebraska Wesleyan University On Fri, 9 Jun 2006, Nigel Wade wrote: > Chris St. Pierre wrote: >> I have a RHEL 4 NFS server that shares out three volumes, all >> read-only. One goes to another Linux box, and the other two go to a >> Solaris 9 machine. One of the volumes mounted on the Solaris boxes is >> having bewildering problems. >> >> Every night, two processes run on the server that cause these >> problems. The first is: >> >> /sbin/quotacheck -fguma >> >> The second is AIDE, a Tripwire replacement. When either of these >> processes runs, semi-random files semi-disappear from the client. The >> files are always in the same directories, but different ones disappear >> on different days. The symptoms are always the same: running 'ls' >> will show the files, but running 'ls -lAF' (or anything that requires >> running stat() on them) fails with "File not found." Opening them >> also fails. To solve this problem, I have to touch the file *on the >> client*; of course, it gives an error that it can't create the file in >> question, but after that, everything works. >> >> The only common thread I can think of between quotacheck and AIDE is >> that both stat a very large number of files on the server. That said, >> AIDE is not configured to check any of the volumes that are shared via >> NFS. I also wrote a quick Perl script to recurse into a directory and >> stat all the files in it, but that doesn't break the NFS shares, >> either. >> >> I initially thought the problems where related to the firewall on my >> server, so I turned it off. (There is no firewall on the client.) >> Based on suggestions from fellow S.A., I tried adding actimeo=0 and >> forcedirectio to the mount options on the client, but that didn't >> solve anything. My users are getting very antsy, to say the least. >> Does anyone have any ideas? (Aside from cosmic rays, I mean.) Here's >> my /etc/exports on 'huxley', the server: >> >> /webdirs/univ job.nebrwesleyan.edu(all_squash,anonuid=1080,anongid=1080,ro) >> /webdirs/students >> students.nebrwesleyan.edu(all_squash,anonuid=1080,anongid=1080,ro) >> /webdirs/faculty >> job.nebrwesleyan.edu(all_squash,anonuid=1080,anongid=1080,ro) >> >> And on 'job', the client, the corresponding lines from /etc/vfstab: >> >> huxley:/webdirs/univ - /www_misc nfs - yes >> huxley:soft,bg,actimeo=0,forcedirectio >> huxley:/webdirs/faculty - /web/people nfs - yes soft,bg >> >> It bears repeating that only one of the volumes (/webdirs/univ, >> mounted on /www_misc) is having problems; the other volume shared >> between the two servers is just fine. Other NFS mounts on the client >> and shares from the server are similarly fine. In fact, most of the >> NFS share in question is fine -- it's just two directories that >> consistently lose files whenever quotacheck or AIDE is run. >> >> Any ideas? I'm up against a brick wall on this one. Thanks! >> >> Chris St. Pierre >> Unix Systems Administrator >> Nebraska Wesleyan University >> > > This is just wild speculation on my part... > > Could it be that the job you are running is placing such a heavy load on the > server that NFS requests from the client are timing out? This in turn is being > cached on the client, causing the resulting "File not found" errors? I notice > you have actimeo=0, could this be the culprit - does that mean cache forever, > or never cache? The man page isn't forthcoming on that. > > -- > Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group, > University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK > E-mail : nmw@xxxxxxxxxxxx > Phone : +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555 > > -- > redhat-list mailing list > unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list > -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
