ssh and nfs connections refused by Linux host running RedHat 9.0 and having 2 NIC

erinduffy · 01-05-2005, 02:58 PM

Hello to all.
At virtual gunpoint, I have upgraded the master computer in our cluster to RedHat 9.0 2.4.20-8smp from RedHat 7.2 2.4.18-asmp (I know, old technology, but it worked). The box has two NIC cards (Intel PRO/1000 10/100/1000 GETH PCI Adapter); one speaks to our network (eth0) and the other to the cluster nodes (eth1). From the master computer, I can get out and about using ssh, smbclient, etc. I will note that -- during a smbclient session where I was creating a tarball of files on a Win2K machine -- the connection timed out after some period of time that was < 10 minutes. From our networked computers (Linux and Win2K boxes) I can ssh into the machine and nfs mount the RAID that's attached, but the connections are closed randomly by the master computer. Subsequent attempts to ssh into that machine or to nfs mount the RAID are then refused until some time later (again, appears random). I can always ping the master computer, even when the connections are being refused.

Here's what I know...
I have completely disabled the firewall, and ipchains/iptables are disabled. For grins, I have set the "Keep Alive Yes" in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. I have verified that there are no autologout settings in the system-wide login files. I have included an ALL: domain line in the /etc/hosts.allow.

I am really out of ideas and would appreciate any and all suggestions.
Thanks.

erinduffy · 01-21-2005, 11:13 AM

To all -
My original thought (discarded without research by our IT group) was that another machine on our network was using the same IP address (we use DHCP for most desktop machines). It turns out that they 'forgot' that they assigned that IP address to a printer that arrived the same day I upgraded the OS. This became clear when I finally gave up, removed the ethernet cables from the machine and then decided to ping it from a networked machine... of course, the ping was successful (big surprise). Anyway, though I have lost quite a bit of hair, the problem is solved.
Thanks to any who read and gave thought to the problem, and thanks to those who refrained from sending some sort of "you're a moron" note.