IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 107 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Clients see ‘Stale NFS file handle’ on previously working mount.

Environment & Reproduction

NFS server export recreated or fsid changed.

Root Cause Analysis

Inode/fsid on server no longer matches client cached handle.

Quick Triage

On client run mount and df, check errpt for NFS errors.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

On server run exportfs -va and check /etc/exports timestamps.

Solution – Primary Fix

Unmount with umount -f then re-mount; restart nfsd with stopsrc/startsrc -g nfs.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use exportfs -ua then exportfs -a to re-export cleanly.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

ls and stat on mount succeed with no stale handle errors.

Rollback Plan

If data is corrupted, restore from backup_nfs snapshot.

Prevention & Hardening

Avoid recreating exported filesystems without quiescing clients.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Common with HACMP/PowerHA failover changing fsid.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM Docs: NFS administration, exportfs.