The missing link

Hi,
I am using a SuSE 9.2 system as an NFS server and are seeing some
strange results. The server holds our home directories and exports a number of disks to all the other workstations in the group. The setup is somewhat strange in that the first NFS mount, a directory called "server", containing all the mountpoint for the subsequent mounting of the other exported partitions

eg. /server exported from the fileserver contains

drwxr-xr-x   4 root root 288 2005-04-01 15:32 .
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  27 2005-03-24 16:25 ./Shared -> /server/volumes/vol0/Shared
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  26 2005-03-24 10:55 ./Staff -> /server/volumes/vol0/Staff
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  27 2005-03-24 10:52 ./users -> /server/volumes/vol0/users/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  26 2005-03-24 10:51 ./usr1 -> /server/volumes/vol0/usr1/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  26 2005-03-24 10:51 ./usr2 -> /server/volumes/vol0/usr2/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  25 2005-03-24 10:53 ./usr3 -> /server/volumes/vol0/usr3
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  25 2005-03-24 10:54 ./usr4 -> /server/volumes/vol0/usr4
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root  25 2005-03-24 10:54 ./usr5 -> /server/volumes/vol0/usr5
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root 120 2005-03-29 13:52 ./volumes
drwxr-xr-x  12 root root 272 2005-04-01 16:00 ./volumes/vol0
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root  80 2005-03-23 17:53 ./volumes/vol1
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  48 2005-03-29 13:52 ./volumes/vol2

The fstab of a client therefore looks like:

melbourne-fs3:/server /server nfs defaults 0 2

melbourne-fs3:/server/volumes/vol2      /server/volumes/vol2     nfs     defaults  0 2
melbourne-fs3:/server/volumes/vol1      /server/volumes/vol1     nfs     defaults  0 2
melbourne-fs3:/server/volumes/vol0      /server/volumes/vol0     nfs     defaults  0 2

The clients then have a link from /Staff --> /server/Staff which in it self is a link to /server/volumes/vol0/Staff i.e. /Staff (link on client's root) --> /server/Staff (link on nfs mount) --> /server/volumes/vol0/Staff (Real NFS exported directory)

This works fine most of the time and allows us to move data between disks without having to change links of the clients. It also allows us to add new disks an easily bring them into use.

However on occasion we have noticed that the /server/Staff link just disappears for some SuSE9.2 clients and the user no longer has access to there home directory. All other clients still have the link available and they are fine.

It appears that the client looses the /server/Staff symbolic link out of its NFS cache and forgets about it until the cache expires and does a readdirplus on the /server directory. All other accesses to the /server director on the NFS client prior to the cache update only check the attibutes of the /server directory and it contents (excluding the /server/Staff link) and as nothing has changed, uses the cached data.

I am at a loss as to how I can debug this NFS problem further. I have done copious amounts of searching on google and have not found a similar issue.

Server and client particulars are:

Both SuSE 9.2
Server 'uname -a': Linux melbourne-fs3 2.6.8-24.14-default #1 Tue Mar 29 09:27:43 UTC 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux Kernel based NFS server

Client 'uname -a': Linux cockatoo 2.6.8-24-default #1 Wed Oct 6 09:16:23 UTC 2004 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

Any assistance as to how I should go about debuging such a beast would be greatly appreciated, especially as it only happens 1 a fortnight further componding being able to resolve it

David

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