[OpenAFS] copying files to /afs filesystem hangs on system call close(4)

[Jamal Green]

Another Sys Admin and I have the privilege of
migrating our DCE/DFS 3.1 cell to an AFS cell. We're new to AFS and we cant
seem to figure this one out.

Currently we're experiencing strange behaviour with Redhat LINUX AFS
clients
using openafs 1.2.9. We do not seem to have this problem with Debian.

The Redhat client is using Redhat 8.0, kernel 2.4.18-27 and openafs 1.2.9.
We ran an strace while copying a 12MB file (a tarred/gzipped file) from a
directory on an ext2 filesystem
and we see the file being copied and written without a problem (and very
quickly I
might add)...then this happens:

[420d6948] read(3,
"\255\6\3602\211\35\r\216qB4\206\'\23#\21\245G\215\266N"..., 4096) = 4096
[420d69c8] write(4,
"\255\6\3602\211\35\r\216qB4\206\'\23#\21\245G\215\266N"..., 4096) = 4096
[420d6948] read(3,
"\201q\\.\312\31\233*r\10+\306\253\5(\324\363\353\346\n"..., 4096) = 4096
[420d69c8] write(4,
"\201q\\.\312\31\233*r\10+\306\253\5(\324\363\353\346\n"..., 4096) = 4096
[420d6948] read(3,
"2\235U\332\351\33\315\261\27\230Y\f*w\2\3016\353t\314k"..., 4096) = 1129
[420d69c8] write(4,
"2\235U\332\351\33\315\261\27\230Y\f*w\2\3016\353t\314k"..., 1129) = 1129
[420d6948] read(3, "", 4096)            = 0
[420d68c1] close(4

It hangs at the close(4). We have to wait over 10 minutes for the close to
complete. We've searched but we can't seem to find a solution to this
particular problem. Anybody else experienced this and found a work around?

We initially thought it was a caching problem because the cache wound up on
an
ext3 filesystem. We rebuilt the workstation to use ext2 only but that
hasn't
fixed it. We also think it's a timeout of some type, but again we're not
experienced
enough with AFS to know for sure.

Any help or pointing in the right direction would be GREATLY appreciated as
we
are under the gun to migrate our entire cell by the end of the summer.

Thanks!

M. Jamal Green
UNIX Systems Administrator
Office of Computing and Communications Services
UNIX Support Group
[phone]:757-683-3678
[fax]:757-683-5155
http://www.lions.odu.edu