RHEL7 / RHEL6.7: Slow NFS operation (ls -l) with NFSv3 mount on RHEL6 kernel-2.6.32-573.el6 and above due to directory being modified while listing is in progress

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • After updating to the latest RHEL6 kernel to kernel-2.6.32-573.18.1.el6.x86_64 we experience slow response to "ls" command to NFS mounted filesystem:
root@client:/root # time ls -l  /mnt/nfs
^C

real    7m27.137s
user    0m0.164s
sys     0m12.179s
  • With kernel 2.6.32-504.23.4.el6.x86_64 the same operation completes within 30 seconds:
root@client:/root # uname -a
Linux client 2.6.32-504.23.4.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri May 29 10:16:43 EDT 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@client:/root #  time ls -l /mnt/nfs

….
real    0m30.151s
user    0m0.922s
sys     0m1.574s
  • The directory contains about 100.000 files and is served from an AIX6.1 server. NFS statistics shows a large amount of READDIRPLUS operations.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 (NFS client)
    • kernel 2.6.32-573.*el6 or higher
    • kernel prior to 2.6.32-696.el6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (NFS client)
    • any RHEL7 including at least kernel 3.10.0-514.*el7
  • Any NFS server
    • seen on AIX6.1 (NFS server)
  • NFSv3

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase of over 48,000 articles and solutions.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In

New to Red Hat?

Learn more about Red Hat subscriptions

Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.