Comment 12 for bug 879334

The .nfs files are created when you remove (unlink(2) in Unix lingo) a
file while it is still opened (used) by a program. This is quite
normal behavior for Unix programs.
In a local file system the file is only removed from the directory
(can no longer be opened by other programs) and it is not really
destroyed until the Unix kernel detects that the last program
accessing it exits.
The nfs servers implements it (the remove action) by renaming the file
to .nfsXXX at the server so that it can still be used by the client.
It does not know when the last accessing client exits, so it keeps the
file until a cleanup job is run.

2011/11/16 Vagelis Nonas <email address hidden>:
> Yes you are right, it must be v3 the protocol we both use. I'll make a
> test again tomorrow of the old file system and post back my
> observations.
>
> Do you know why there are those hidden .nfsxxxxxxxxxxxxx   files? I
> noticed they exist in the new file system too. Are they left overs, or
> are they necessary for the operation of nfs? Do you have such files in
> your server at the filesystems you export?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/879334
>
> Title:
>  nfsd from nfs-kernel-server very slow and system load from 25%-100%
>  from nfsd
>
> Status in “nfs-utils” package in Ubuntu:
>  Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
>  I have a diskless ubuntu 10.10 machine which I boot regularly using
>  pxe-boot from another ubuntu machine where I have the root filesystem
>  of the diskless machine exported over nfs.
>
>  I set it up about a year ago using 10.10. In the mean while the server
>  machine got upgraded to 11.04 and as of yesterday to 11.10.
>
>  After the upgrade to 11.10 the diskless machine is dead slow (most of
>  the times it wont even boot completely) and the load on the server
>  machine is high (25%-100% as shown from top). If in the middle of the
>  diskless computer booting I do a restart of the nfs server, the client
>  computer proceeds with the boot a bit more and then it gets stuck
>  again. I have to restart and nfs-server 3-4 times in order to get the
>  gdm login screen at the client machine
>
>  ProblemType: Bug
>  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
>  Package: nfs-kernel-server 1:1.2.4-1ubuntu2
>  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
>  Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
>  ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
>  Architecture: i386
>  Date: Fri Oct 21 12:53:02 2011
>  ProcEnviron:
>   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
>   SHELL=/bin/bash
>  SourcePackage: nfs-utils
>  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-20 (1 days ago)
>
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