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: login hangs when server dies
Message-ID: <878@east.East.Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Sep 89 13:21:52 GMT
References: <1989Sep28.195215.4656@tubsibr.uucp>
Sender: news@east.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Billerica MA
Lines: 34

In article <1989Sep28.195215.4656@tubsibr.uucp> petri@tubsibr.UUCP (Stefan Petri) writes:
>
>Configuration : Targon/35-M50 with TOS3.2 and NFS3.2
>	(thats a clone of Pyramid 9810 OSx4.0 , I think)
>	linked via ethernet to some Sun3/60 (SunOs 3.5 and 4.0.3)
>
>Problem: when a nfs-servers dies, the `login' on all of his
>clients will hang somewhere after displaying /etc/motd (saying nfs-server gargel
>not responding, still trying) ; even if neither the user
>nor the system needs (seems to need ? ) the files from that died
>server. ( e.g. remote-mounted man-pages).

You may not need them, but your shell may! Seriously, if you have
an inaccessible NFS-mounted drive anywhere in your path you are likely to
see this problem. For example, my "/usr/local/`arch`/bin" occurs in
my path ahead of my home directory (possibly dumb, but never mind), and
my ".login" includes a reference to a private script in my home directory.
Obviously the shell had to try to scan "/usr/local/`arch`/bin" to resolve this.

For a long time I mounted "local-host:/usr/local" on my "/usr/local",
which led to the problem you described whenever "local-host" was down.
Eventually I switched to using the automounter: my "/usr/local" is
now a symbolic link to "/vol/local", and "auto.vol" defines a couple
of alternative servers for "/usr/local". Not only do I get fault-
tolerance, but if neither server is available the automounter will time
out after a sensible interval.

If the Targon system doesn't support the automounter yet, ask them when
they'll be upgrading to NFS based on NFSSRC4.0.

Geoff Arnold,                              Internet: geoff@East.Sun.COM
PCDS Group, Sun Microsystems Inc.
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