[OpenAFS] AFS delaying server shutdown when network connectivity is lost

[Sean Rogers]

Hi,

I've been doing some testing involving shutting down servers (running Debian etch 2.6.18)  while network connectivity has been lost. If 
the machine can't access AFS while it is shutting down I get the following messages:

Jan 29 10:03:09 attack shutdown[6299]: shutting down for system halt
Jan 29 10:03:09 attack init: Switching to runlevel: 0
Jan 29 10:03:50 attack apcupsd[6248]: 000.0,000.0,119.0,00.00,60.00,09.0,23.0,000.0,000.0,000.0,030.0,0
Jan 29 10:04:07 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu
Jan 29 10:04:07 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu
Jan 29 10:04:59 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu
Jan 29 10:04:59 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu
Jan 29 10:05:50 attack apcupsd[6248]: 000.0,000.0,119.0,00.00,60.00,09.0,23.0,000.0,000.0,000.0,038.0,1
Jan 29 10:05:57 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu
Jan 29 10:05:57 attack kernel: afs: Lost contact with volume location server x.x.x.x in cell physics.unc.edu

This continues for 10 to 15 minutes, preventing the machine from shutting down. I've been able to fix this problem by setting AFS_DYNROOT to true in 
afs.conf.client file, but I was wondering if there was another solution to this problem?

Thanks,
Sean