Kernel deadlock when using ext2/3/4 or GPFS

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

Situation

Kernel versions prior to 3.0.42-0.7.3

A SLES11SP2 system using ext2/3/4 or GPFS on its exporting NFS shares may experience a kernel deadlock displaying messages similar to:

[ 2292.020015] BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 22s! [nfsd:3702]
[...]
[ 2292.020129] Call Trace:
[ 2292.020154]  [<ffffffff8115a3a3>] __lookup_hash+0x93/0x1d0
[ 2292.020161]  [<ffffffff8115aef6>] lookup_one_len+0xb6/0xf0
[ 2292.020169]  [<ffffffffa0402f58>] nfsd_unlink+0x108/0x260 [nfsd]
[ 2292.020186]  [<ffffffffa0409c51>] nfsd3_proc_rmdir+0x81/0x120 [nfsd]
[ 2292.020199]  [<ffffffffa03fb381>] nfsd_dispatch+0xb1/0x250 [nfsd]
[ 2292.020211]  [<ffffffffa038b483>] svc_process_common+0x333/0x620 [sunrpc]
[ 2292.020228]  [<ffffffffa038bab1>] svc_process+0x101/0x160 [sunrpc]
[ 2292.020241]  [<ffffffffa03fbb3d>] nfsd+0xcd/0x150 [nfsd]
[ 2292.020249]  [<ffffffff8107ade6>] kthread+0x96/0xa0
[ 2292.020260]  [<ffffffff8144a4c4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[ 2292.021234] DWARF2 unwinder stuck at kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[...]
[ 2292.022016]  [<ffffffff8107ad50>] ? kthread_worker_fn+0x190/0x190
[ 2292.022018]  [<ffffffff8144a4c0>] ? gs_change+0x13/0x13
[ 2292.022020] Kernel panic - not syncing: softlockup: hung tasks
[ 2292.022023] Pid: 3702, comm: nfsd Not tainted 3.0.34-0.7-default #1
[ 2292.022029] Call Trace:
[ 2292.022037]  [<ffffffff810048a5>] dump_trace+0x75/0x300
[ 2292.022042]  [<ffffffff8143e73f>] dump_stack+0x69/0x6f
[ 2292.022046]  [<ffffffff8143e7d8>] panic+0x93/0x201
[ 2292.022055]  [<ffffffff810bd731>] watchdog_timer_fn+0x181/0x190
[ 2292.022064]  [<ffffffff8107f14e>] __run_hrtimer+0xbe/0x1a0
[ 2292.022068]  [<ffffffff8107f441>] hrtimer_interrupt+0xc1/0x1e0
[ 2292.022073]  [<ffffffff81020d83>] smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x63/0xa0
[ 2292.022077]  [<ffffffff81449d73>] apic_timer_interrupt+0x13/0x20
[ 2292.022746] DWARF2 unwinder stuck at apic_timer_interrupt+0x13/0x20
[...]

Resolution

Please update to kernel 3.0.42-0.7.3 or later.

Entry in the ChangeLog:

vfs: dcache: use DCACHE_DENTRY_KILLED instead of DCACHE_DISCONNECTED in d_kill() (bnc#779699).

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