Deleted Snapshots Still Appear in DF Output
Learn how to resolve an issue where deleted snapshots still appear in DF output with "stale file handle".
Symptom: Deleted snapshots still appear in df
output with the message stale file handle
.
Cause: When you use an NFSv3 client to perform operations such as
ls
, du
, or find
on the snapshot
directory, the service automatically exports the directory. The client uses
nfs_d_automount()
to detect and mount the directory. After the
directory is detected and mounted the first time, the client mounts the directory
automatically.
If you then delete the snapshot, the mount becomes disconnected. The client still holds
an active reference to the snapshot, but can no longer access the snapshot itself, so it
reports stale file handle
.
Solution: Manually unmount the snapshot. For example:
sudo umount <snapshot_mountpoint>
If the unmount command fails with the message device busy
, use the -f
flag to force the command and ignore the stale file handles. For example:
sudo umount -f <snapshot_mountpoint>