topic what mean outage during takover for NFSV4 in ONTAP Discussions

what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

grocanar — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:51:52 GMT

i m using ontap 9.11 and considering migratin from NFSV3 to NFSV4.

I m carefully reading the following document

NFS in NetApp ONTAP
Best practice and implementation guide

https://www.netapp.com/media/10720-tr-4067.pdf

in page 64 it talk about potential outage and takevoer.
When it s written during a failover
Lock state is not moved; up to 45s
outage when locks are in use.

Does that mean that all the Netapp is out of reachable up to 45 seconds or just the file that the lock is put on.
It s not exactly the same in term of impacts.

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

MaGr — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:02:58 GMT

Hi,

the locking mechanism for NFS4 has changed. Now the file remains locked until timeout.

If there is no urgent need, I would not change to NFS4.

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

Ontapforrum — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:12:14 GMT

Yes, this is a file-locking under lease-based-model. It's not NetApp that is unreachable, rather the grace-period (30seconds Lease + 15seconds Grace = 45 seconds total) given to clients to re-claim their locks. As the total time-out value is 45 seconds, you are expecting the Server/LIF to be up already in best case scenario.

In general - NFSv4 locks provide a time-bounded grant of control over file state to an NFS client. Holding a lease allows a client to assume that its lock remains valid for a server-specified, renewable time interval.

Following Kbs may be worth considering:

How does the NFSv4 grace periods work?
https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/How_does_the_NFSv4_grace_periods_work

Why may NFSv3 perform better than NFSv4.x?
https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/Why_may_NFSv3_perform_better_than_NFSv4.x

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

heightsnj — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:15:07 GMT

Yeah, we have a lot of discussions about converting v3 to v4 as well. It is indeed confusion.

As we've discussed in this thread, if a client has a lock on a file and a failover(either on LIF's or nodes) exceeded 45s, the client may lost the connection to NetApp NFS.

However, people on the other side saying the issue got resolved by this link:
https://mysupport.netapp.com/site/bugs-online/product/ONTAP/BURT/1499441

Can this link really resolved the issue we have discussed?

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

heightsnj — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:33:34 GMT

>> Now the file remains locked until timeout.

when timeout (45s) reached, the lock on the file got released/lost, and therefore the outage happened. Is this why outage could happen?

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

heightsnj — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 14:17:39 GMT

☆

1499441 - ESXi clients lose NFS 4.1 locks during takeover

Bug ID	1499441
Title	ESXi clients lose NFS 4.1 locks during takeover
Status	Fixed
Severity	P2
Found In Versions	9.11.1P2, 9.8P14, 9.9.1, 9.9.1P2, 9.9.1P6
Last Update	12-Feb-2023
Summary	When the deny mode bit is set to "lock object", network lock manager rejects multiple attempts to reclaim the locking state with the share lock conflict error, 102.
Fixed In Versions	For minimum recommended release, please visit SU2 9.11.1P7, 9.12.1, 9.12.1P1, 9.9.1P14
Workaround	None
Created On	26-Aug-2022
Notes	None

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

Ontapforrum — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:31:52 GMT

@heightsnj: To be very honest, Admins who have seen/experienced migrations from NFSv3 to NFSv4/4.1, and then seen this issue first hand, will be able to shed more useful information. There are plenty of information around NFSV4/4.1 (mostly about key enhancements over previous versions), but the real-test is probably when the failover/reboot/ happens at the NFS server side (NetApp Storage). In earlier NFS versions (v2&3) NLM/NSM took care of the locking issues.

Coming to the Burt, disruptions caused by this combination "NFSv4.1" and "VMware ESXi 6.x+ datastores" specifically, I see there are Kbs that suggests it has been FIXED. It appears to be VMware bug that incorrectly handled the responses from the Server.

https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/VMware_NFSv4.1_datastores_see_disruption_during_failover_events_for_ONTAP_9

https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/Top_ESXi_known_issues%2F%2Fworkarounds%2F%2Fbest_practices_for_NFSv4.1

Further, looking at the bug :1499441 (You shared) - ESXi clients lose NFS 4.1 locks during takeover (Updated:12-Feb-2023), it sounds like this has been fixed from ONTAP end as well or may be. I would suggest, raising a ticket so that you can track this issue directly and get an update.

On the side note: I was reading the Burt (1499441) you shared, it says NFS4.1 in the subject, but in the summary it is referencing 'NLM', I thought NLM was only applicable to NFSv2/3? So this bit is confusing to me. I don't know the whole context of this particular bug though.

Re: what mean outage during takover for NFSV4

MaGr — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:47:55 GMT

Hi,

we are on NFS3 and never had issues with the locking of files as described in the table of TR4067 page 64. (up to 45s on NFS3).

Does it also will run well with v4? The facts are too unclear for me to migrate.