Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!east!hinode!geoff
From: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: Various Questions re: PC-NFS, etc.
Message-ID: <1195@east.East.Sun.COM>
Date: 7 Dec 89 14:20:17 GMT
References: <1989Dec6.163953.20378@dvinci.usask.ca>
Sender: news@east.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: geoff@East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Billerica MA
Lines: 59

In article <1989Dec6.163953.20378@dvinci.usask.ca> moorej@dvinci.usask.ca (Jonathan Moore) writes:
>	1) Every so often (about once a week or so), clients stop being
>	able to mount the server's disks. Terminal sessions are still OK.
>	This affects the PC-NFS clients as well as other UNIX servers. 
>	Nothing I try short of rebooting the server can fix the problem. 
>	Is there something less drastic that can be done about this? Is
>	something perhaps conflicting with the NFS stuff?

There's not enough information to go on here. Is the mount daemon
still running? (Try "showmount -e hostname".) Are the nfsd daemons hosed?
(Check with ps ax.) Is it only mounting that fails, or are existing
mounts screwed up? Are there any anomalous stats shown by "nfsstat -s"?
Etc. Etc.

>	2) The /etc/rmtab file on the server seems to grow (and grow...).
>	Many of the entries have a hash character in them. 
>		.
>		
>	I assume PC-NFS is putting the "#" hash characters in the lines
>	when a PC client unmounts (or maybe when it dies). Is this
>	something to cause concern? Can I just periodically trash this
>	file (It gets to be >1 Mb)?

Way back when (when? maybe SunOS 3.x.) I thought that "rpc.mountd" tried
to actually delete entries from /etc/rmtab, but maybe I was dreaming...
Anyway, the SunOS 4.0 code includes the fragment:

void
rmtab_delete(pos)
        long pos;
{
        if (f != NULL && pos != -1 && fseek(f, pos, 0) == 0) {
                fprintf(f, "#");
                fflush(f);
        }
}

which is responsible for the '#' lines. I suggest that you just trash
the file if it gets too big - it's purely advisory, anyway.

BTW, PC-NFS isn't writing anything - it's the rpc.mountd on the server.
>	
>	3) Another PC-NFS question. Is there any way to (somewhat
>	accurately) account for usage under PC-NFS? It would be advantageous
>	to be able to track how much the lab is being used and by whom.

The only straightforward solution to this seems to be to write
a little DOS TSR that is kicked off when you log in and which opens
an NFS-mounted file and periodically stuffs a timestamp in there.
This would run until logout or (obviously) power-off.
A Unix program can then browse these files and compute the usage.
The TSR would look a little like the print redirector in structure.

Taking advantage of NFS seems the best way to keep the size down.

Geoff Arnold, PCDS Group,     | Quote of the week: "Shut up and mind your
Sun Microsystems Inc.         | Canadian business, you meddlesome foreigner."
Internet: geoff@East.Sun.COM  | (Theodore A.Kaldis, <kaldis@topaz.rutgers.edu>
Disclaimer: Obviously....     | on Nov. 22 1989, in reply to Joe Nunes.)