[comp.sys.sgi] NFS on PI

mccalpin@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu (John D. McCalpin) (09/14/89)

I am having terrible trouble with NFS between a PI and several other
machines.  The PI hangs (completely dead) randomly when transferring
large files via NFS.  The problem almost always occurs when I am
reading and writing large files on NFS-mounted disks. This happens
every few days when the input and output files are on the same
(remote) machine, and every few hours when the input and output files
are on different machines.

The worst problems are with the NeXT machine (O/S 0.9), but I also get
failures with SGI 3000's (O/S 3.6). The PI is running a recent version
of the O/S also, 3.14711181642....

Changing things like hard vs soft mount does not help....

Is this just another SGI trick to get us to buy more disk drives for
the PI?
--
John D. McCalpin - mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu
		   mccalpin@scri1.scri.fsu.edu
		   mccalpin@delocn.udel.edu

jmb@patton.sgi.com (Jim Barton) (09/14/89)

In article <MCCALPIN.89Sep13161657@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu>, mccalpin@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu (John D. McCalpin) writes:
> I am having terrible trouble with NFS between a PI and several other
> machines.  The PI hangs (completely dead) randomly when transferring
> large files via NFS.  The problem almost always occurs when I am
> reading and writing large files on NFS-mounted disks. This happens
> every few days when the input and output files are on the same
> (remote) machine, and every few hours when the input and output files
> are on different machines.
> 
> The worst problems are with the NeXT machine (O/S 0.9), but I also get
> failures with SGI 3000's (O/S 3.6). The PI is running a recent version
> of the O/S also, 3.14711181642....
> 
> Changing things like hard vs soft mount does not help....
> 
> Is this just another SGI trick to get us to buy more disk drives for
> the PI?
> --
> John D. McCalpin - mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu
> 		   mccalpin@scri1.scri.fsu.edu
> 		   mccalpin@delocn.udel.edu

Better get the latest OS release.  The 3.147... version is the original
OS release for the PI, and is quite out of date by now.  And we really aren't
trying to trick you into buying more disk drives ...

-- Jim Barton
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems    "UNIX: Live Free Or Die!"
jmb@sgi.sgi.com, sgi!jmb@decwrl.dec.com, ...{decwrl,sun}!sgi!jmb

brendan@illyria.wpd.sgi.com (Brendan Eich) (09/15/89)

In article <41738@sgi.sgi.com>, jmb@patton.sgi.com (Jim Barton) writes:
> In article <MCCALPIN.89Sep13161657@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu>, mccalpin@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu (John D. McCalpin) writes:
> > I am having terrible trouble with NFS between a PI and several other
> > machines.  The PI hangs (completely dead) randomly when transferring
> > large files via NFS.
> 
> Better get the latest OS release.  The 3.147... version is the original
> OS release for the PI, and is quite out of date by now.

Seconded.  The first PI release had bugs not only to do with Ethernet
(which showed up best under NFS stress), but also with interrupted level
management (for kernel heads, spl was busted).

Brendan Eich
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
brendan@sgi.com

jweldon@renegade.csd.sgi.com (Jack Weldon) (09/16/89)

In article <41751@sgi.sgi.com> brendan@illyria.wpd.sgi.com (Brendan Eich) writes:
>> > I am having terrible trouble with NFS between a PI and several other
>> > machines.  The PI hangs (completely dead) randomly when transferring
>> > large files via NFS.
>
>Seconded.  The first PI release had bugs not only to do with Ethernet
>(which showed up best under NFS stress), but also with interrupted level
>management (for kernel heads, spl was busted).
>
>Brendan Eich
>Silicon Graphics, Inc.
>

I agree heartily with both Jim and Brendan's assesment of the problem.  Since
the 3.2 Release of IRIX is around the corner, you may want to wait until then.
If not, feel free to call the Hotline and ask for a maintenence tape to bring
you up above Rev C (3.147XXX). The bug was fixed in Rev D, but a Rev G is 
also available that has the NFS patch and other patches as well.  If this is
your only problem, I'd stick with Rev D.  Let us know if we can assist. 

Jack Weldon
Product Support System Engineer
SGI Geometry Hotline

--

Cheers,
Jack

mccalpin@masig3.ocean.fsu.edu (John D. McCalpin) (09/29/89)

I am happy to report that SGI has fixed the problems I reported earlier
with NFS crashing my PI.  The second or third call to the hotline
found someone who knew about a bug in the 3.1D revision relating to
ethernet stuff.  They shipped us a 3.1G tape and I have been unable to
crash the system since :-).

Apparently the releases between 3.1D and 3.1G were distributed only to
sites which reported problems.  This is a nice policy to relieve the
user of the burden of upgrading all the time, but I would have liked
to have heard about the existence of the upgrades and the bugs they fixed....
--
John D. McCalpin - mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu
		   mccalpin@scri1.scri.fsu.edu
		   mccalpin@delocn.udel.edu

blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") (09/30/89)

   What would be nice is if they sent you a short note when ever there
was a new release and what that release fixes.  Then you could send them
a card back if you wanted the newest release.
--

	Brent L. Bates
	NASA-Langley Research Center
	M.S. 294
	Hampton, Virginia  23665-5225
	(804) 864-2854
	E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov