Re: rpc.mountd stops functioning

[Johan van den Dorpe <johan.vandendorpe@framestore-cfc.com>]

I think I've got this sussed. After reading this thread:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=9891180
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=9901077

I thought it might be worth testing the vanilla nfs-utils package from 
kernel.org rather than the redhat supplied versions.

Now, I've had this setup running for 28 days without any issues on one 
of our servers that has been a real problem in the past.

I'm going to try this solution on a wider scale to try and confirm this 
further, but for now I consider this the fix.

My advice to anyone running a vanilla kernel is to run the vanilla 
nfs-utils package and not a redhat nfs-utils package.

Johan van den Dorpe wrote:
> I clicked send a bit fast. Other info:
> 
> Running RHEL 3 with 2.4.25 vanilla kernel. nfs-utils-1.0.5
> 
> Experienced the problem in the past with Red Hat 7.3 with same 2.4.25 
> kernel and 2.4.20 kernel + XFS patches + Trond's all patch for 2.4.20. 
> Tried nfs-utils 0.3.3 and 1.0.6
> 
> Johan van den Dorpe wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>>
>> For a long time we've been experiencing problems with rpc.mountd 
>> stopping functioning.
>>
>> I'm finding it hard to pinpoint the precise circumstances where we 
>> encounter a problem, but here is what we have observed:
>>
>> - A mount request, or a showmount -e, to the server will hang
>>
>> - The server will print a log message authenticating the mount request
>>
>> - The server doesn't print log messages that it has authenticated 
>> unmount requests.
>>
>> - Killing rpc.mountd and then restarting it fixes the problem (I've 
>> not tried a HUP)
>>
>> - There is a correlation between the number of mounts being handled 
>> (i.e. the number of entries in rmtab) and the frequency of the problem.
>>
>> - The problem only occurs on servers that are mounted by a significant 
>> number of hosts (500-700).
>>
>> - The more exports on the server, the more frequently the problem occurs.
>>
>> - It should be noted that clients are mounting subdirectories of a 
>> single exported filesystem, so number of rmtab entries > number of 
>> xtab entries.
>>
>> - Clearing the rmtab and restarting nfs (service nfs restart) seems to 
>> provide the longest time between failures.
>>
> 
> 


-- 
Johan van den Dorpe


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