AUTOFS mount time out with file open

[Lars-Olof Fermvall]

I am using AUTOFS on HP-UX 10.20 to be able to use NFS version 3. I use an external NAS to store my online JFS backups on. My script starts up, checks that the NAS is on the network and that I can access the directory on the NAS and then, using vxdump piped to gzip, starts to back up various directories, putting all output in files in one directory. This directory is then backed up using the same method (vxdump piped to gzip), but now the destination file is on the NAS. This worked well, until my backups grew, and I started to get 'stale file handle' at the end of this backup. I have increased the automount time out to four hours (which is much too long for what I am doing), but the problem has come back. Do I have to 'trick' NFS by having a background script doing 'll' on the file system in the background, or what else can I do? Does 'soft' or 'hard' mount matter for this? Having a file open and writing to it does not appear to be considered accessing the file by NFS (!?!?!). I will post the relevant files later, and other information anyone asks for. My understanding is that I have the correct patches installed (or NFS 3 wouldn't work).

[Con O'Kelly]

Hi Lars

Haven't used AutoFS for a while so probably can't help much. To me increasing your automount timeout to beyond the backup time window should have addressed any issues about the automounted Filesystem not being used/accessed etc, hence I can't see doing an 'll' fixing your problem.

One suggestion I'd make (if you haven't done so) is to turn on tracing (-T) and use verbose mode (-v) for automountd. Set the AUTOMOUNTD_OPTIONS="-T -v" in nfsconf file.
This may give you more info on the problem in /var/adm/automount.log and in syslog.log.

You could also use the nfssat command which may point you towards a performance issue on the network.

Let us know if you find a solution.

Cheers
Con

[Michael Steele_2]

Can you attach these?

nfsstat -s
nfsstat -rc
netstat -m
netstat -s -p udp
sar -u 5 5
vmstat -n 5 5

[Lars-Olof Fermvall]

Please look at the attached configuration files... Tell I haven't put the "-t 14440" in the wrong spot in nfsconf, have I? If so, I can only say I am but a fool and hang my head in shame... It should it have been under "AUTOMOUNTD_OPTIONS=" instead, shouldn't it?

[Con O'Kelly · Accepted solution]

Hi Lars

You probably have put the -t in the wrong spot spot. Easily done as there is options for both the old Automounter and newer AutoFS which look very similar.

I would say that you need to make the following changes to nfsconf:

AUTOMOUNT_OPTIONS="-t "
AUTOMOUNTD_OPTIONS="-T -v"

Cheers
Con

[Lars-Olof Fermvall]

Hi Con!

Thanks for that! It all makes sense now... I am so confident it will work when tested (tomorrow) that I will give out points right away!

See yah!
Lars-Olof