From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 14 13:10:37 2006 Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG> X-Original-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA53A16A4DF for <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:10:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bra@fsn.hu) Received: from people.fsn.hu (people.fsn.hu [195.228.252.137]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CE14D43D5E for <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:10:36 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bra@fsn.hu) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by people.fsn.hu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44DCF84428 for <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:10:35 +0200 (CEST) Received: from people.fsn.hu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (people.fsn.hu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 56006-10 for <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:10:15 +0200 (CEST) Received: from [IPv6:::1] (unknown [192.168.2.3]) by people.fsn.hu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 918BF84408 for <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>; Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:10:15 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <44E07636.4090403@fsn.hu> Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:10:14 +0200 From: Attila Nagy <bra@fsn.hu> User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (X11/20060731) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-2; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at fsn.hu Subject: Redundant/failover NFS servers - stale NFS file handle X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD <freebsd-net.freebsd.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net>, <mailto:freebsd-net-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-net> List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-net@freebsd.org> List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-net-request@freebsd.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net>, <mailto:freebsd-net-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe> X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:10:37 -0000 Hello, I would like to run diskless clients (they are actually servers) from FreeBSD, but I don't like having a SPoF at the NFS server level and don't want to use expensive out of the box solutions, like a NAS with a SAN behind it. The scenario of one master server and one (or more) slave(s) are enough for me, as the mounts would be read only. So in theory, having two FreeBSD boxes, both with the NFS service on a CARP-based virtual IP would perfectly fit my needs. The only problem is that NFS encodes some information in the filehandles, so when I'm doing a failover with the NFS clients (bringing the carp interface down on the master server), I get "Stale NFS file handle". Linux has an fsid option, which can be specified in exports, but as far as I can understand what's going under the hood it's only part of the problem. Due to inode numbers (and maybe other reasons) I need to have a common, shared file system between the NFS servers to have file handles in sync. Do you see any possible solutions, which could satisfy this (thought to be) simple need of having a master and slave NFS servers with a virtual IP without client side support? As for the client side, Solaris has the capability of doing NFS client failover (reported to have some problems, but for now I would have only FreeBSD clients), and AMD has multiple server support, but I don't know how does that work with FreeBSD diskless boots yet. (root FS on NFS) Thanks, -- Attila Nagy e-mail: Attila.Nagy@fsn.hu Free Software Network (FSN.HU) phone: +3630 306 6758 http://www.fsn.hu/