Need Help to Fix Stale NFS File Handle

[Alex Dean]

On Feb 25, 2011, at 4:16 PM, Mark Phillips wrote:

> 
> 
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM, Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org> wrote:
> 
> On Feb 25, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Mark Phillips wrote:
> > # mount | grep nfs
> > return anything?
> > hammerhead:/home/mark# mount | grep nfs
> > rpc_pipefs on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
> > hammerhead:/home/mark#
> >
> > I have no idea who rpc_pipefs on /var/lib.... is and why it is there! Any ideas before I blow it away?
> 
> That's NFS-server related.  Used by the id mapper, I think.  On RedHat at least, I think that's started/stopped by /etc/init.d/nfslock. (Though my memory is a little sketchy on that point.)  The pipefs could possibly be mounted even if nothing's using it, also.  Got any NFS-related services running?
> 
> Afaik, an NFS server shouldn't get stale file handles.  That's a client's problem.
> 
> RedHat/Fedora:
>  $ rpm -qa | grep nfs
> Debian/Ubuntu:
>  $ dpkg --list | grep nfs
> Both:
>  $ ls /etc/init.d | grep nfs
> 
> hammerhead:/home/mark# dpkg --list | grep nfs
> rc  libnfsidmap1                         0.8-1                                An nfs idmapping library
> ii  libnfsidmap2                         0.20-1                               An nfs idmapping library
> ii  nfs-common                           1:1.1.2-6lenny2                      NFS support files common to client and serve
> 
> hammerhead:/home/mark# ls /etc/init.d | grep nfs
> mountkernfs.sh
> mountnfs-bootclean.sh
> mountnfs.sh
> nfs-common
> umountnfs.sh
> hammerhead:/home/mark# 
> 
> Wow...I had no idea nfs was running. I have no idea how it is being used or by what process. Do I stop it with /etc/init.d/umnountnfs?
> 
> Mark

unmountnfs.sh is part of initscripts.  I don't think you're expected to call it directly, so I'd be inclined to say leave it alone.  I think you can try removing all those packages if you really don't need them.  To stop nfs-common, you'd use '/etc/init.d/nfs-common stop'.

alex at artichoke:~$ cat /etc/issue
  Ubuntu 9.10 \n \l
alex at artichoke:~$ dpkg -S /etc/init.d/umountnfs.sh 
  initscripts: /etc/init.d/umountnfs.sh

You can use "apt-cache showpkg nfs-common" to figure out if you've got any packages which depend on nfs-common.  (Same for libnfsidmap1 and 2.)  Look in the 'Reverse Depends' section.  Or just "apt-get remove ..." and see what warnings you get.

I imagine the uninstallation scripts should umount the pipefs filesystem, but that may not be true.  Either way, I don't think that's the cause of your 'stale file handles' issue, but I could certainly be wrong on that point.

alex