Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!tomg
From: tomg@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Thomas J. Gilg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: hpux 6.5:  nfs mount from hell
Message-ID: <101950105@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 12 Mar 90 18:51:27 GMT
References: <2008@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Organization: Fly Fishermans Anonymous
Lines: 25


> apparently, it's a feature of HP-UX to be very stubborn if an
> nfs mounted disk goes away...  everything starts going to pieces
> when this happens, and one workstation after another hangs up --
> even if the workstation is not referencing the mounted nfs disk at all.

One thing that will help is to _avoid nfs mounting a disk to root_.
Instead, create an nfs subdirectory and nfs mount things there.

  # mount hpfoo1:/foodisk /foodisk               # not good.

       - In this case, system hangups are possible if hpfoo1:/foodisk
         goes away, even if you don't formally access /foodisk.  I suspect
         most resolutions of absolute path names (ie, /lib/cpp) requires
         a scan through /.  If a hung mount is hit before the desired
         file is found, you have a nasty hang.

  # mount hpfoo1:/foodisk /nfs/hpfoo1/users      # better.  Avoids most hangups

       - This should protect you unless you make a formal access
         of the mount.  You might want to consider soft mount and
         retry timeouts also in either case.

Thomas Gilg
tomg@cv.hp.com