[Madlug] nfs, ext3, ande2fsck

[John G. Heim]

I have a file server with an ext3 file system. My end users are mounting 
their home directories from this file server via nfs. Fsck indicated errors 
on the file system last week so over the weekend, I ran fsck on it. This 
fixed the errors but fsck is already showing more errors.

I'm planning on repeating the steps I did over the weekend, comment out the 
lines mounting the partition in fstab on the file server, reboot, run 
'e2fsck -p', uncomment the lines in fstab, reboot again. Meanwhile, many 
machines around the department will have users logged in and their home 
directories will be mounted via nfs. There is no way I can shutdown all of 
those machines or get everyone to log out. Is that a problem? Could that 
account for why I am getting fsck errors already, because I didn't do that 
last time?

If it does cause problems, what can I do? About the only way to get everyone 
to log out is to cut the power to the entire building. That could probably 
be arranged. It happened during the Michigan State game. It would be like 
that old joke:

Diner: "I'd like some runny eggs, some cold toast, slimy bacon, and stale 
orange juice."

Waitress: "Sir, this is a quality restaurant. We can't serve you that."

Diner: "Why not? You did yesterday."

---

Me: "I'd like you to accidently cut the power to the entire math department 
building."

Electrician: "Sir, we can't do that."

Me: "Why not? You did a few weeks ago."