NFS mount no longer exists. How do I remove

[Craig A. Sharp]

Hi all,

My N4000 has an old nfs mount point from a server that no longer exists. The N is trying to mount the server and is stuck.
The old mount point is /home/cashar/test_mount. If I try to umount, the system says:
nfs umount: nfs_unmount: /home/cashar/test_mount: is busy.

If I do a mount I get:/home/cashar/test_mount on db05558.liv06.roushnet.com:/psoft/merkur/faxroot/storage defaults,NFSv3 on Fri Sep 29 12:26:08 2000

db05558 is no longer available to mount. The NFS client is constantly trying to mount and is causing problems on the system.

How do I put a stop to this problem?

Thanks,

Craig A. Sharp
Roush Industries

[Andreas Voss]

Hi,

possibly there are some processes at the nfs.
Look with: fuser /home/cashar/test_mount
to see any processes that access the nfs dir.
With: fuser -k /home/cashar/test_mount you can kill those processes.
After that try again umount.

Regards

[Rita C Workman]

You may want to check the /etc/exports file and edit this. This is where you set up file systems to be exported for mounting by the other system. I am presuming you are only looking to stop mounting this one file system.

To get rid of what is showing as mounted...try doing a fuser (options -f for open files; -u for user; -c for mount point & anything beneath) to see what is holding it as busy and then try doing a fuser -k to kill the process (if it is ok to kill it).

Just a thought,

[Craig A. Sharp]

I tried the fuser /home/cashar/test_mount and the system does not show anything, this is the prompt that I receive:

/home/cashar/test_mount:

Thanks,

Craig

[Denver Osborn]

Is it listed in the /etc/fstab? remove the entry for the nfs mount from the /etc/fstab to prevent from mounting it at startup.

[Andreas Voss]

Hi,

is the mount issued from automount ?
Then you have to edit the /etc/auto_master or whereever your mount take place (ie: /etc/auto.direct)
Delete or comment the line with the mount, save the changes and typ: automount.
Perhaps this helps

Regards

[Rita C Workman]

Try command:
fuser -fu /home/cashar/test_mount

First (and this may sound silly...) but make sure your a /.
I say this cause I have been guilty of being the person cd'd into the directory... yeah I know...dah..

If nothing comes back as mounted or being used by any user...then try to do the fuser -k /home/cashar/test_mount and then do a umount..

[Craig A. Sharp]

The fuser commands are locking on me. I get no reply from any of the commands.
I tried the fuser -k /home/cashar/test_mount and it just sits there.

I have also looked at the automounter and there are no entries. It is the same with the fstab file.

Craig

[Rita C Workman · Accepted solution]

Craig,

Are you logged in as 'root' ? Try it as root..

[Craig A. Sharp]

I have done all as root :-)

[Alan Riggs]

Unfortunately, if NFS had a hard mount established to the server then you will only be able to clear it by rebooting. Make sure that teh automount (or whatever process established the mount in the first place) has been corrected and reboot.

[Andreas Voss]

Hi,

one thing to try:
mv /etc/mnttab /etc/mnttab.old
mount

This will rebuild the /etc/mnttab from scratch.

Regards

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Im afraid Alan's right, last chance before reboot is trying anything:
fuser -ku rather then the filesystem
try and stop the nfs service and start it again...
sometimes youre lucky (30%) leaves 70% of reboot...
Good luck
Victor

[Craig A. Sharp]

I guess reboot is the answer. Nothing is working. Thanks all for you help.

Craig

[Craig A. Sharp]

Ok, how about this. I have put the server back online. How do I force the system to pickup the mount again?

Craig

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Which server? the one that exported?
If so you should be able to umount now...
You should also (if NFS still works) to mount again by just typing :
mount rhost:/exportfs /mountpoint

[Craig A. Sharp]

I have put the exported filesystem back online. I want the client that is having the problem to remount the export.

Thanks,

Craig

[Victor BERRIDGE]

So thats just:
mount remotehost: /

If it doesnt work, reexport the filesystem from the remote host, that is on the remote host, type:
/usr/sbin/exportfs -av

Check that you ping correctly the remote host...

[Craig A. Sharp]

I can ping the remote host and I also exportfs'ed the server but the client still hangs.

Craig

[Victor BERRIDGE]

try to stop/start again the NFS client:
/sbin/init.d/nfs.client stop

[Craig A. Sharp]

Update: I tried to restart the nfs subsystems with no luck.

I created a new mount point and successfully mounted the old system with no problem. The old mount point still will not work. The client still wants to mount the server to the old mountpoint.

I was hopeing that by shutting down nfs, the client would not try to mount. Guess what, it still wants to mount.

Craig

[Victor BERRIDGE]

I cant believe there is no /etc/auto_mount...
Are you sure you have no config problem with /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf?
Isnt there an /etc/xtab ?
what are the messages you get when you reinitialize the nfs client using /sbin/init.d>./nfs.client stop

[Craig A. Sharp]

Got it!

Here is how to correct the problem. Prior to correcting the problem, if you try bdf, it will hang. Your system needs to have a second NIC. Set the NIC to the address of the old server. Make sure that there is an entry in the hosts file for the old server. Now when you enable the second NIC with the address of the old server, the NFS system will have something to connect to. Umount the stale filesystem. Now try bdf and it should not hang. Disable the second NIC and you are good to go.

Additional note: If you are running HPUX 11.00 you can alias the old server address to your primary NIC.

Thanks to all who tried to help and thanks to HP Phone Support.

Craig