NFS Services Administrator's Guide (762805-001, March 2014)

“Device Busy” message
□ If you received the “device busy” message while attempting to mount a directory, check
whether it is already mounted.
□ If you received the “device busy” message while attempting to unmount a directory, a user
or process is currently using the directory. Wait until the process completes, or follow these
steps:
1. Enter the following command to determine who is using the mounted directory:
/usr/sbin/fuser -cu local_mount_point
The fuser(1M) command will return a list of process IDs and user names that are currently
using the directory mounted under local_mount_point. This will help you decide
whether to kill the processes or wait for them to complete.
2. To kill all processes using the mounted directory, enter the following command:
/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 19 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
98 Troubleshooting NFS services