[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] timing issue in mountnfs

[Steve Wray]

Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> [Steve Wray]
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I've encountered what I believe is a timing problem in mountnfs.
>>
>> It does not seem to give enough time between bringing up the network  
>> interface and attempting NFS mounts.
>>
>> I'm referring to /etc/network/if-up.d/mountnfs
>>
>> I solved this by inserting some sleeps.
> 
> Yeah, I am aware of this.  The problem is really in the linux kernel,
> which have become event based and thus unpredictable.  We are working
> on a proper fix for this.
> 
> Can you provide information about the network equipment you have
> (network card, computer model, switch vendor and model) and setup
> (content of /etc/network/interfaces and output from lspci), and submit
> it as a bug against the initscripts package?  I've seen similar with
> static IP configuration and cisco switches, and would like to see if
> this is similar or a different setup.

Ok I have used reportbug to send a bug report.

In case I messed it up I'll append my bug report here!

Thanks


> 
>> I'd file a bug report but I don't believe that I'm qualified; I
>> found my solution by trial and error and theres probably a 'right'
>> way to do this that you have provided... and which I've been unable
>> to figure out.
> 
> I suspect the problem could be improved slightly in the ifupdown
> package, but am not sure.  Lets start with initscripts and take it
> from there.
> 
> Happy hacking,



Subject: initscripts: fails to mount NFS shares at boot
Package: initscripts
Version: 2.86.ds1-61
Severity: important

*** Please type your report below this line ***

The /etc/network/if-up.d/mountnfs script appears not to give enough time after
bringing up interfaces before attempting to mount NFS shares.

At boot, messages to the effect 'no route to host' are seen.

After boot, ifdown/ifup operations mount NFS shares.

After boot mount -a will mount NFS shares.

I resolved the issue by putting a 'sleep 10' at two points in the mountnfs 
script thus

         if [ "$NETFS" ]
         then
                 sleep 10
                 mount -a -t$NETFS
         fi
         if [ "$NETDEV" ]; then
                 sleep 10
                 mount -a -O _netdev
         fi

The server in question is a Xen domU virtual machine.

Its Xen configuration looks like this:

kernel      = '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-xen-686'
ramdisk     = '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-xen-686'
memory      = '256'
root        = '/dev/sda2 ro'
disk        = [
                   'phy:/dev/volumes/tec-web1-swap,sda1,w',
                   'phy:/dev/volumes/tec-web1-disk,sda2,w',
               ]
name        = 'tec-web1'
vif         = [ 
'rate=20MB/s,ip=192.168.50.10,mac=00:16:3E:34:A4:70,bridge=br2' ]
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'

The network connection to the NFS server is via Xen bridging.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.2
   APT prefers stable
   APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-xen-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages initscripts depends on:
ii  debianutils                  2.30        Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii  e2fsprogs                    1.41.3-1    ext2/ext3/ext4 file system utiliti
ii  libc6                        2.7-18      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  lsb-base                     3.2-20      Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  mount                        2.13.1.1-1  Tools for mounting and manipulatin
ii  sysvinit-utils               2.86.ds1-61 System-V-like utilities

Versions of packages initscripts recommends:
pn  psmisc                        <none>     (no description available)

initscripts suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information