Why are Solaris logins slow when remote storage server NFS mounted?

We've got a curious problem with one of our Solaris (10, U8) servers. If we have our extra storage array mounted via NFS, the Solaris user logins are exceptionally slow. Unmount the storage device and user logins get real fast again. Anyone ever encounter anything like this before?

I've got other Solaris 10 servers elsewhere with storage arrays mounted the same way that don't have the issue. Those other ones actually are attached to even slower pieces of equipment and should be worse, all else being equal.

I really don't understand why an NFS mount that shouldn't be involved in the login process at all is causing the slowdown.

Solution 1:

The login process might spend a lot of time in the /usr/sbin/quota check if quotas are enabled on the NFS filesystems.

Solution 2:

Check the PATH environment variable. Odds are, the users' PATH includes directories that you are NFS mounting. So they're probably getting checked for executables, configuration scripts, etc. When nothing is mounted, those directories will be local, and will obviously go quickly. But once you've NFS mounted them, it will be delayed. This will be compounded if you have multiple such directories in the PATH.


--Christopher Karel