IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 59 – 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 shares from AIX 7.3 NFS server.

Environment & Reproduction

Underlying JFS2 was unmounted/recreated while clients held mounts.

Root Cause Analysis

Inode generation numbers changed; client cached fh no longer maps.

Quick Triage

Run showmount -e on server and rpcinfo -p to verify NFS services.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use nfsstat -m on client and nfso -a on server to view tuning.

Solution – Primary Fix

Unmount/remount on clients; on server run exportfs -ua && exportfs -a.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Restart NFS with stopsrc -g nfs && startsrc -g nfs and remount.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

ls /mnt on clients succeeds and no NFS3ERR_STALE in nfsstat.

Rollback Plan

Revert /etc/exports from backup and re-export old paths.

Prevention & Hardening

Avoid recreating exported JFS2 without coordinated client unmount.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

NFS3ERR_STALE, biod hangs, mount: 1831-011 errors.

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

AIX NFS administration guide.