Re: Stale NFS File Handle

[Trond Myklebust <trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no>]

On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 10:05 -0800, Brian D. McGrew wrote:
> Good morning all (kind of a long winded mail, please have patience!)
> 
> I've got an FC3 server running a 2.6.9 kernel and sharing about 500GB of
> disk space on a RAID5 array via NFS.  This box has been running fine for
> over a year now but in the last three weeks or so I'm seeing a ton of
> Stale NFS File Handle errors; especially in my overnight builds.
> 
> Most of my clients are FC3 and a couple of Solaris boxes running a stock
> configuration.  All we're doing is serving up NFS and compiling with
> GCC.  We're seeing this error more and more and the harder I try to
> track it down, the more we're seeing it (ok, maybe that's my
> imagination).
> 
> I'm guessing that the problem has to be somewhere in the FC3 server
> because I've still got some Solaris NFS servers that have been running
> for years with no problems.
> 
> What should I be looking for in tracking this error down?  Should I
> upgrade my kernel?  Should I throw away FC3 and go to Enterprise Linux?
> I'm at the end of my rope here because this is now causing a major set
> back to our development team!

Kernels prior to 2.6.12 (if memory serves me correctly) had a series of
errors in the code that converts filehandles into valid dentries on the
server. Upgrading to the FC4 kernel, which I believe to be 2.6.14 based,
is therefore very likely to solve your problem.

Cheers,
  Trond