NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Troubleshooting NFS Services
Common Problems with NFS
Chapter 5174
“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:
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
Table 5-1 Stale File Handle Sequence of Events
NFS client 1 NFS client 2
1
% cd /proj1/source
2
% cd /proj1
3
% rm -Rf source
4
% ls
.:Stale File Handle