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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love standards: de facto, de jure, de gustibus, de lusionary, de credo...