Mounting volumes from localhost using NFS clients and the Gluster-NFS server fails at boot time

[Louis Zuckerman]

GlusterFS provides it's own NFS server which exports glusterfs volumes.

If an NFS client is used to mount a localhost glusterfs volume at boot time it's likely that the mount will be executed in fstab before the gluster-nfs server is ready.

There was a similar issue when using the glusterfs FUSE client (mount type "glusterfs") which I fixed by adding a wait-for-state task to upstart.

Something similar is needed for NFS mount types as well.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Louis Zuckerman (semiosis)]

I finally fixed the mount on boot bug for FUSE clients in my PPA packages (the official upstream glusterfs packages for ubuntu). If anyone cares to try reproducing this problem (with FUSE clients) using my latest packages (from today) I would really appreciate your feedback.

The PPA: https://launchpad.net/~semiosis/+archive/ubuntu-glusterfs-3.4/+packages

NFS clients would need to be blocked while glusterd and its minions get started. See the mounting-glusterfs.conf upstart job (in my glusterfs-client package) for an example of how to block a mount. It would need to be modified to intercept your NFS mount. I dont know exactly how to do that but it shouldn't be too hard. Ping me in #gluster on freenode irc if you try & have trouble.

Thanks!

[Louis Zuckerman (semiosis)]

Oh but a much bigger problem is this...

Mounting NFS from localhost is a BAD IDEA. There's a well known deadlock condition when under heavy load. It WILL fail on you!

I can't find a link to more info but if anyone can fill in the details please do. This is not unique to the gluster nfs server, it applies to any nfs server and client mount of it on the same machine.

Beware.