Need Help to Fix Stale NFS File Handle

[Alex Dean]

On Feb 25, 2011, at 4:35 PM, Mark Phillips wrote:

> 
> 
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 3:28 PM, Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> What if I just delete the files that have stale NFS file handles and re-install them?
> 
> Mark 

Then you have no idea if the problem will recur or not.  (If it happened once, it probably will again.)  Did you ever check if you have automount running?

Take a look for automount's config files and see if anything seems familiar.
$ ls /etc/auto*
$ cat /etc/auto.master

alex