194165de5d
Submitted by: jkh gclarkii paul satoshi freebsd-hackers These are the FAQ files, reorganized a bit and updated marginally for 2.0. There is *still more work to be done* in updating, so if some of your FAQ text is below, please check it over! We've also got a lot of FAQ entries still to write (examples: "how do I upgrade?" "what's new in 2.0?" "how do I install on a notebook/second drive/from DOS/etc etc etc?"
78 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
FreeBSD and NFS [for a FAQ]
|
|
|
|
Certain Ethernet adapters for ISA PC systems have limitations which
|
|
can lead to serious network problems, particularly with NFS. This
|
|
difficulty is not specific to FreeBSD, but FreeBSD systems are affected
|
|
by it.
|
|
|
|
The problem nearly always occurs when (FreeBSD) PC systems are networked
|
|
with high-performance workstations, such as those made by Silicon Graphics,
|
|
Inc., and Sun Microsystems, Inc. The NFS mount will work fine, and some
|
|
operations may succeed, but suddenly the server will seem to become
|
|
unresponsive to the client, even though requests to and from other systems
|
|
continue to be processed. This happens to the client system, whether the
|
|
client is the FreeBSD system or the workstation. On many systems, there is
|
|
no way to shut down the client gracefully once this problem has manifested
|
|
itself. The only solution is often to reset the client, because the NFS
|
|
situation cannot be resolved.
|
|
|
|
Though the "correct" solution is to get a higher performance and capacity
|
|
Ethernet adapter for the FreeBSD system, there is a simple workaround that
|
|
will allow satisfactory operation. If the FreeBSD system is the SERVER,
|
|
include the option "wsize=1024" on the mount from the client. If the
|
|
FreeBSD system is the CLIENT, then mount the NFS file system with the
|
|
option "rsize=1024". These options may be specified using the fourth
|
|
field of the fstab entry on the client for automatic mounts, or by using
|
|
the "-o" parameter of the mount command for manual mounts.
|
|
|
|
In the following examples, "fastws" is the host (interface) name of a
|
|
high-performance workstation, and "freebox" is the host (interface) name of
|
|
a FreeBSD system with a lower-performance Ethernet adapter. Also,
|
|
"/sharedfs" will be the exported NFS filesystem (see "man exports"), and
|
|
"/project" will be the mount point on the client for the exported file
|
|
system. In all cases, note that additional options, such as "hard" or
|
|
"soft" and "bg" may be desireable in your application.
|
|
|
|
Examples for the FreeBSD system ("freebox") as the client:
|
|
in /etc/fstab on freebox:
|
|
fastws:/sharedfs /project nfs rw,rsize=1024 0 0
|
|
as a manual mount command on freebox:
|
|
mount -t nfs -o rsize=1024 fastws:/sharedfs /project
|
|
|
|
Examples for the FreeBSD system as the server:
|
|
in /etc/fstab on fastws:
|
|
freebox:/sharedfs /project nfs rw,wsize=1024 0 0
|
|
as a manual mount command on fastws:
|
|
mount -t nfs -o wsize=1024 freebox:/sharedfs /project
|
|
|
|
Nearly any 16-bit Ethernet adapter will allow operation without the above
|
|
restrictions on the read or write size.
|
|
|
|
For anyone who cares, here is what happens when the failure occurs, which
|
|
also explains why it is unrecoverable. NFS typically works with a "block"
|
|
size of 8k (though it may do fragments of smaller sizes). Since the maximum
|
|
Ethernet packet is around 1500 bytes, the NFS "block" gets split into
|
|
multiple Ethernet packets, even though it is still a single unit to the
|
|
upper-level code, and must be received, assembled, and ACKNOWLEDGED as a
|
|
unit. The high-performance workstations can pump out the packets which
|
|
comprise the NFS unit one right after the other, just as close together as
|
|
the standard allows. On the smaller, lower capacity cards, the later
|
|
packets overrun the earlier packets of the same unit before they can be
|
|
transferred to the host and the unit as a whole cannot be reconstructed or
|
|
acknowledged. As a result, the workstation will time out and try again,
|
|
but it will try again with the entire 8K unit, and the process will be
|
|
repeated, ad infinitum.
|
|
|
|
By keeping the unit size below the Ethernet packet size limitation, we
|
|
ensure that any complete Ethernet packet received can be acknowledged
|
|
individually, avoiding the deadlock situation.
|
|
|
|
Overruns may still occur when a high-performance workstations is slamming
|
|
data out to a PC system, but with the better cards, such overruns are
|
|
not guarranteed on NFS "units". When an overrun occurs, the units affected
|
|
will be retransmitted, and there will be a fair chance that they will be
|
|
received, assembled, and acknowledged.
|
|
--
|
|
John Lind, Starfire Consulting Services
|
|
E-mail: john@starfire.MN.ORG USnail: PO Box 17247, Mpls MN 55417
|