NFS trouble on 7.3-STABLE i386

[Rick Macklem]

On Fri, 21 May 2010, Mark Morley wrote:

> Having an issue with a file server here (7.3-STABLE i386)
>
> The nfsd processes are hanging.  Client access to the nfs shares stops working and the nfsd processes on the server cannot be killed by any means.  There are no errors showing up anywhere on the server.  The network connection to the server seems fine (ie: anything other than nfs traffic seems ok).  Rebooting the server fixes the problem for a while, but it doesn't reboot easily.  It times out on terminating the nfsd processes.  When it finally does reboot the file system isn't marked clean, resulting in a long wait for fsck (although it doesn't find any problems, it's a multi terrabyte share and it takes a while).
>
> This morning it did it again.  This time I tried manually killing nfsd but nothing I did would make them die.  No errors.
>
Next time it happens, do a "ps axlH" to see what the nfsd threads are
waiting for. It might give you a hint as to what is happening.

rick