SLES 12 NFS Clients logging frequent rpc.gssd errors

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

Situation

Each time an NFS mount is performed, the NFS client machine logs the following:

rpc.gssd[29590]: ERROR: gssd_refresh_krb5_machine_credential: no usable keytab entry found in keytab /etc/krb5.keytab for connection with host <nfs-server-name>

rpc.gssd[29590]: ERROR: No credentials found for connection to server <nfs-server-name>

These were logged on systems where rpc.gssd was not expected to be needed.

Resolution

Update nfs-utils (nfs-client and nfs-kernel-server packages) via the SLES 12 maintenance channel, to version 1.3.0-9.1 or higher. Optionally update nfs-doc as well (to the same version).

Cause

In some older cases, there could be kernel problems if rpc.gssd wasn't running. Therefore, it was always started. However, if it was running when it wasn't truly needed, and the /etc/krb5.keytab file not present, the above errors would be logged. The older kernel issue has been fixed. However, the nfs client initialization script (/etc/init.d/nfs) was still set to load rpc.gssd in all cases.

The /etc/init.d/nfs script has been changed to only enable rpc.gssd if a /etc/krb5.keytab file actually exists.

Disclaimer

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