NFS Services Administrator Guide (5900-3045, March 2013)

□ If you frequently see the following message when attempting access to a soft-mounted directory,
NFS operation failed for server servername: Timed out
try increasing the value of the retrans mount option in the /etc/fstab file on the NFS
clients. Or, change the soft mount to an interruptible hard mount, by specifying the hard and
intr options (the defaults).
□ Enter the following command on the NFS server, to find out the block size of the server’s
filesystem:
/usr/sbin/tunefs -v devicefilename
On the NFS clients, set the wsize and rsize mount options to the bsize value displayed
by tunefs.
□ On the NFS clients, look in the /etc/fstab file for “stepping-stone” mounts (hierarchical
mounts), as in the following example:
thyme:/usr /usr nfs defaults 0 0
basil:/usr/share /usr/share nfs defaults 0 0
sage:/usr/share/lib /usr/share/lib nfs defaults 0 0
Wherever possible, change these “stepping-stone” mounts so that whole directories are
mounted from a single NFS server.
Stepping-stone (hierarchical) mounts, like the one in the example above, cause more NFS
requests than mounts from a single server. In the example, if a client wants access to something
in /usr/share/lib, a request must be sent to server thyme, then to server basil, and
finally to server sage.
For more information on the stepping-stone mounts, see “Changing the Default Mount Options”
(page 38).
Logging and Tracing of NFS Services
This section tells you how to start the following tools:
• “AutoFS Logging” (page 74)
• “AutoFS Tracing” (page 75)
• “Logging for the Other NFS Services” (page 102)
• “Logging With nettl and netfmt” (page 103)
• “Tracing With nettl and netfmt” (page 103)
Logging for the Other NFS Services
You can configure logging for the following NFS services:
• rpc.rexd
• rpc.rstatd
• rpc.rusersd
• rpc.rwalld
• rpc.sprayd
Logging is not available for the rpc.quotad daemon.
Each message logged by these daemons can be identified by the date, time, host name, process
ID, and name of the function that generated the message. You can direct logging messages from
all these NFS services to the same file.
102 Troubleshooting NFS Services