strange kernel freeze during "exportfs -a" w/2.6.9-rc1

Hello all, hi Neil, hi Olaf,

we recently found a strange bug in the recent 2.6 kernels that freezes the whole kernel (down to even no response to the Magic SysRq keys). And in fact sticks us to the 2.4 series we want to get rid of :)

This happens during "exportfs -a" when the following sequence commences (tested by manual command execution, with some seconds betweeen the commands):

	rpc.nfsd 128
	rpc.mountd
	rpc.statd
	exportfs -a

We cannot reproduce it on a "normal" machine.

The most recently tested kernel is a 2.6.9-rc1 (since each test breaks the production service). exportfs is 1.0.6.

The particular server is the NFS file repository for a high volume FTP cluster, thus beeing requested by the still online 4 ftp backend servers *heavily*.

It has 2 Fast Ethernet ports in *bonding* mode (in peak hours they can be filled with ease).

Probably it is this combinations that makes a problem.

There are only two directories being exported to 5 machines each with really standard options.

The freeze can be reproduced even when the exported directories are empty (no mount of the *some* GB to be checked afterwards, nice for testing :)) and even with "strace exportfs -a".

strace stops during the call of

	nfsservctl(0x1,...,0)

right after reading the still empty /proc/fs/nfs/exports.

I just hope that something helps.
If we can run a special test or provide suitable
information about the system, please let me know.

Thank You in advance, probably it's something easily fixed.

Yours sincerely,
- Marian

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