NFS Services Administrator's Guide HP-UX 11i version 3

/usr/sbin/fuser -ck local_mount_point
3. Try again to unmount the directory.
□ Verify that the filesystem you are trying to unmount is not a mount-point of another
filesystem.
□ Verify that the filesystem is not exported. In HP-UX 11i v3, an exported filesystem keeps
the filesystem busy.
“Stale File Handle” Message
A “stale file handle” occurs when one client removes an NFS-mounted file or directory
that another client is accessing. The following sequence of events explains how it occurs:
Table 5-1 Stale File Handle Sequence of Events
NFS client 2NFS client 1
% cd /proj1/source
1
% cd /proj1
2
% rm -Rf source
3
% ls
.:Stale File Handle
4
If a server stops exporting a directory that a client has mounted, the client will receive a stale
file handle error. Stale file handles also occur if you restore the NFS server’s file systems
from a backup or randomize the inode numbers with fsirand(1M).
□ If the stale file handle occurred because someone removed a file or directory that was in
use, or because a server stopped exporting a directory that was in use, follow these steps:
1. Enter the /usr/bin/cd command to move out of the NFS-mounted directory that is
causing the problem, then try unmounting the directory:
/usr/bin/cd /..
/usr/sbin/umount directory
2. If the directory cannot be unmounted because it is busy (in use), enter the following
commands to kill the processes using the directory and to try again to unmount it:
/usr/sbin/fuser -ck local_mount_point
/usr/sbin/umount local_mount_point
3. If the directory still cannot be unmounted, reboot the client.
4. To avoid stale file handles caused by users deleting NFS-mounted files, try using a
source code control system, like Revision Control System (RCS). A source code control
system allows only one user at a time to modify a file or directory, so one user cannot
remove files another user is accessing. For more information on the source code control
system, see rcsintro(5).
□ If someone has restored the server’s file systems from backup or entered the fsirand
command on the server, follow these steps on each of the NFS clients to prevent stale file
handles by restarting NFS:
1. Enter the mount(1M) command with no options, to get a list of all the mounted file
systems on the client:
/usr/sbin/mount
2. For every NFS-mounted directory listed by the mount command, enter the following
command to determine whether the directory is currently in use:
/usr/sbin/fuser -cu local_mount_point
This command lists the process IDs and user names of everyone using the mounted
directory.
98 Troubleshooting NFS Services