[mdlug] stale NFS file handles - achille's heal of linux?

[Dean Durant]

Hello, can anyone tell answer this question:   stale NFS file handles, is there an equivalent problem in every OS or just those that rely on NFS?     Is there a better way to share files over a network?  

I had a situation recently where there was a 38 - hour job running on a cluster.   We needed to add a SCSI disk to the file server (separate from the cluster).   The users were screaming about space for their results.    We had to reboot the file server to add the disk.   All the NFS mounts were dead and somehow the big job got killed.    This turned out to be very bad and the CAE manager who hates linux blamed it all on linux.   (The CAE workstations, the file server, and the cluster all run linux).   I didn't know what to say.   The NFS stale file handle issue seems to be a sticky one.

Just curious to hear what people have to say.      Thanks, Dean