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Date:      Sun, 29 Aug 1999 12:27:13 +1000
From:      "Shaun Amy, CSIRO TIP/ATNF" <amy@magellan.tip.CSIRO.AU>
To:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        amy@magellan.tip.CSIRO.AU
Subject:   NIS client (ypbind) "feature" on FreeBSD 3.2-STABLE
Message-ID:  <199908290227.MAA14802@magellan.tip.CSIRO.AU>

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Hi,

This is long but I wanted to provide as much information as possible.

There appears to be an interesting "feature" with NIS client support under
FreeBSD 3.2-STABLE (as at Tuesday 24 August).  This was a new installation
onto a Dell Precision 410-MT (single 400MHz CPU, single SCSI disk, on-board
fast ethernet) into an existing environment (the first FreeBSD host in 
this environment which has mainly Suns, a few Alpha and SGIs and an 
increasing number of Linux boxes).  The machine is part of a group that does
telecommunications and networking research - they already have Suns and Linux
boxes.

Essentially the install went smoothly direct from the 3.2 CDs, and subsequent
post-installation configuration involved making a custom kernel, setting up 
NIS client support, configuring AMD, installing some key packages (e.g. "ssh") 
and installing and configuring an Efficient ATM card (using HARP included 
in the release).  No real problems with any of this.

NIS client support uses "ypbind" in broadcast mode - the NIS master server is
a SunOS 4.1.3_U1B machine and three other NIS slave servers are all running
Solaris 2.6.  This environment has served the site well for a number of years
and is VERY stable.  We make extensive use of various NIS maps including the
automounter for home directories.

What appears to happen with the FreeBSD host is that after a reboot, it 
correctly binds to one of the NIS servers BUT whenever, for whatever reason, 
it is forced to re-bind it ends up never re-binding, creates something like 
600kbit/s of broadcast traffic across our LAN and forces the "rpcbind/portmap" 
and "ypserv" process on the NIS servers to become CPU bound - it appears to 
also cause problems for some other broadcast-type applications such as DHCP.
Interestingly, the broadcast traffic slowly decreases but probably only by
say 100kbit/s in a period of more that 12 hours.

Some info:

FreeBSD host:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
% ypwhich
ypwhich: can't yp_bind: reason: Domain not bound

USER     PID %CPU %MEM   VSZ  RSS  TT  STAT STARTED      TIME COMMAND
root     147 44.7  1.5  1288  924  ??  Rs   Tue08PM 394:11.05 ypbind
root     132  1.6  0.9   820  576  ??  Ss   Tue08PM  23:43.76 syslogd
daemon   143  1.1  1.0   836  600  ??  Ss   Tue08PM  22:50.86 /usr/sbin/portmap


NIS master (SunOS 4.1.3_U1B):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USER       PID %CPU %MEM   SZ  RSS TT STAT START  TIME COMMAND
root        60 34.0  0.3   68  236 ?  R    20:27 280:09 portmap
root        65 33.6  0.4  172  388 ?  R    20:27 280:06 ypserv


NIS slave (Solaris 2.6):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USER       PID %CPU %MEM   SZ  RSS TT       S    START  TIME COMMAND
root       221 17.6  0.3 2264 1216 ?        R   Jul 29 386:43 rpcbind
root       234  4.4  0.3 2368 1400 ?        S   Jul 29 474:11 ypserv


In addition, from "syslog" on the FreeBSD host (the broadcast problem started
at around 16:41 so the earlier messages may not be significant):

  Aug 26 05:19:24 rational xntpd[139]: time reset (step) 0.370413 s
  Aug 26 14:25:03 rational portmap[3024]: connect from 130.155.194.226 to callit(ypserv): request not forwarded
  Aug 26 14:25:03 rational portmap[3025]: connect from 130.155.194.226 to callit(ypserv): request not forwarded

   ...

  Aug 26 16:41:15 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp
.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational last message repeated 2684 times
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational /kernel: xl0: command never completed!
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational last message repeated 68 times
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational /kernel: xl0: command never completed!
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational /kernel: xl0: command never completed!
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational last message repeated 3 times
  Aug 26 16:41:21 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 26 16:41:52 rational last message repeated 13943 times


I thought it was interesting to see the messages from the "xl0" driver - this
machine has an on-board 3Com ethernet (as do most newish Dell's) and is
connected to a 10mbit/s hub:

  xl0: <3Com 3c905B-TX Fast Etherlink XL> rev 0x00 int a irq 14 on pci0.17.0
  xl0: Ethernet address: 00:c0:4f:68:e1:6a
  xl0: autoneg complete, link status good (half-duplex, 10Mbps)

The problem is repeatable and as a test I tried to force the host to bind to
particular servers using the "-S" option.  It works after a reboot but no
subsequently with similar problems on the NIS servers.  I didn't see the
"xl0" messages in this case though:

  Aug 28 13:08:48 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 28 13:09:19 rational last message repeated 14143 times
  Aug 28 13:11:20 rational last message repeated 55641 times
  Aug 28 13:21:21 rational last message repeated 261703 times
  Aug 28 13:31:22 rational last message repeated 253355 times
  Aug 28 13:34:19 rational last message repeated 75019 times
  Aug 28 13:34:20 rational login: ROOT LOGIN (root) ON ttyv0
  Aug 28 13:34:20 rational ypbind[147]: NIS server [130.155.194.25] for domain "rp.csiro.au" not responding
  Aug 28 13:34:25 rational last message repeated 2403 times


So I think this is a "real" problem and for some time I have been pushing the
use of FreeBSD because of its stability and heritage as well as the excellent
networking features but there is no way I can push the case with this sort of
problem - I am sure you know what I mean :-)  My only other experience with
NIS on FreeBSD is on my home network (two machines, NIS master on
2.2.8-STABLE and NIS client on 3.2-STABLE (SMP) where it works fine).

I have a quick search of the mailing list archives but I didn't see anything
similar to this.  If I can provide any further information just let me know.

Many thanks,
Shaun.


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