Environment
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
Situation
SLES 8 is the NFS Server, exporting a reiserfs file
system. An NFS client is having intermittent problems
accessing files, and the message found in the /var/log/message
corresponds with these occurrences:
kernel: nfsd-fh: found a name that I didn't expect:
Resolution
There are numerous occurrences of this error mentioned on the
Internet, seemingly always in connection with reiserfs file
systems. The events leading to the error (how the system gets
in this situation) are uncertain. The best information
(though not a full analysis) comes from one of the contributors of
the Linux kernel-based NFS client:
When
knfsd gets a request for a file handle which refers to an
object
that isn't in the dcache, it needs to get it into the dcache.
This
involves finding it's name and splicing it in.
It gets
hold of an inode for the parent directory and reads
through
that
directory looking for a name with the right inode
number.
When it
finds the name, it checks to see that the
name isn't
already
in the dcache under that directory. As the object with
that name isn't in the dcache you would expect the name not to be
their either. This message indicates that the name was there.
that name isn't in the dcache you would expect the name not to be
their either. This message indicates that the name was there.
There
is enough locking in place so that a race between
one process
adding
the name and another process looking up the name for an
object should not stumble over each other - both hold i_sem for the
directory.
object should not stumble over each other - both hold i_sem for the
directory.
Kernel
2.5 does all this quite differently so shouldn't have the same
problem
(the code certainly doesn't contain the same error message).
(the code certainly doesn't contain the same error message).
At
this time the recommendations in regard to this error
are:
1. If
this error does not correspond to some other symptom, don't worry
about it.
2. If
possible, move to SLES 9.
3. If
SLES 8 must be used, consider moving to a non-reiser file
system.