[Linux-cluster] NFS problem ?

[Robert Peterson]

Zvedavec wrote:
> Dear all
>
> I build a small linux cluster. Based on Fedora Core 5 at master node.
> Hardware of the nodes and master are identical identicky -
> mainborards: Asus M2NPV-MX
> :http://support.asus.com/download/do...&model=M2NPV-MX
>
> During instalation/configuration I did ->>
> Step by step :
> 1. DHCP - working well, give correct IPs to nodes
> 2. TFTP - file with kernel is loaded to node and boot start
> 3. NFS - working at master, but during the booting of system I deal
> with the problem with mounting NFS rootimage.
>
> I try also SLIM http://slim.cs.hku.hk/vmware/index.html instalation.
> Everything is almost same like in my instalation. Everything working
> to last screen of instalation guide, but after same error like in my
> isnataltion: Error mesage:
>
> Error, fail to mount system image!
> It may be due to the network driver fail to load,
> NFS server export incorrect or
> network failure.
>
> We try many thing to fix it and finaly we find that when we compile
> kernel with parameter
>
> CONFIG_ROOT_NFS: Y
>
> It helps a litle bit. We can reach login screen. But during booting we 
> still
> have a lot of error messages that system is just readable.
>
> With CD and live distro on node everything work well, I can mount nfs
> disk from master.
>
> Thanks for any advice/solution/anything what help. Thank you.
>
> best regards, Skeptik
Hi Skeptik,

The problem of not being about to mount the root partition might be security
related.  Check the /etc/exports file on your nfs server and try using 
"insecure"
and "no_root_squash" options temporarily to see if your root partition will
mount.  For example, suppose you have a powerpc client 5 that dhcp assigns
an address of 10.0.0.5, do something like this in /etc/exports:

/tftpboot/ppc5           10.0.0.5(rw,insecure,sync,no_root_squash)

Also, you may want to verify that your nfs client version is compatible with
your nfs server version.  For example, if your server exports nfs v3 and 
your
client requires nfs v4.

I am not aware of any problems serving NFS in a cluster.

Regards,

Bob Peterson
Red Hat Cluster Suite