Dell Unity: Duplicate hostnames cause performance issue in NFSv4 environment (User correctable)

Summary: NFSv4.1 clients sharing the same hostname may experience frequent session terminations and recreations. This occurs because the NFSv4.1 protocol uses the hostname as part of the unique client identifier (Client Owner). When multiple hosts use the same identifier, the storage server (e.g., Dell Unity) perceives them as the same client attempting to re-establish a connection, leading to a "session flapping" loop and potential I/O hangs. ...

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Symptoms

Client side: Users report significant NFS performance degradation, specifically high latency during small file operations. 

Unity side: Log shows the NAS server is frequently triggering checkReplay logic, indicating that it is receiving requests with Sequence IDs (seqid) that it believes have already been processed. 

2026/03/23-09:22:31.571765    3     7FCE8B3CF705     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x2
2026/03/23-09:22:31.571948  177     7FCE8AB4F703     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x3
2026/03/23-09:22:31.571969   15     7FCE8AE7F701     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 1 seqid 0x1
2026/03/23-09:22:33.950467  94K     7FCE8E57B703     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x1
2026/03/23-09:22:33.950614  142     7FCE8E24F702     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x2
2026/03/23-09:22:33.950780  159     7FCE8DEDA705     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x3
2026/03/23-09:22:33.950793    8     7FCE8E22A702     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 1 seqid 0x1
2026/03/23-09:22:36.025980 169K     7FCE8C9FD704     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x1
2026/03/23-09:22:36.026291  305     7FCE8C9B9704     sade:NFS: 3:[NAS_server]  checkReplay: sequence replay slotid 0 seqid 0x3

Network: Packet captures identify a Client ID collision between multiple distinct IP addresses (10.10.1.8 and 10.10.1.3). Both hosts are attempting to register with the NFS server using the same client identifier. This causes a race condition where one client invalidates the other's session, leading to sequence errors and a 1-second recovery delay that degrades performance. 

42855	2026-03-20 02:34:12.752931	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	NFS	294	V4 Call (Reply In 42856) CLOSE StateID: 0x97d3
42856	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753069	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	182	V4 Reply (Call In 42855) CLOSE
42857	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753542	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	562	V4 Reply (Call In 42837) OPEN StateID: 0x3dba
42858	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753583	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	TCP	66	976 → 2049 [ACK] Seq=14332461 Ack=1382561 Win=26688 Len=0 TSval=2749783070 TSecr=3786939377
42859	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753635	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	NFS	330	V4 Call (Reply In 42860) SETATTR FH: 0xac0cc5de
42860	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753718	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	114	V4 Reply (Call In 42859) SEQUENCE Status: NFS4ERR_BADSESSION
42861	2026-03-20 02:34:12.753980	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	NFS	186	V4 Call (Reply In 42862) DESTROY_SESSION
42862	2026-03-20 02:34:12.754047	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	114	V4 Reply (Call In 42861) DESTROY_SESSION Status: NFS4ERR_BADSESSION
42863	2026-03-20 02:34:12.754111	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	NFS	298	V4 Call (Reply In 42864) CREATE_SESSION
42864	2026-03-20 02:34:12.754171	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	114	V4 Reply (Call In 42863) CREATE_SESSION Status: NFS4ERR_SEQ_MISORDERED
42865	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755288	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	246	V4 Reply (Call In 42852) EXCHANGE_ID
42866	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755357	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	NFS	298	V4 Call (Reply In 42867) CREATE_SESSION
42867	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755544	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	194	V4 Reply (Call In 42866) CREATE_SESSION
42868	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755606	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	NFS	218	V4 Call (Reply In 42869) PUTROOTFH | GETATTR
42869	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755706	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	182	V4 Reply (Call In 42868) PUTROOTFH | GETATTR
42870	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755775	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	NFS	210	V4 Call (Reply In 42871) RECLAIM_COMPLETE
42871	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755855	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	158	V4 Reply (Call In 42870) RECLAIM_COMPLETE
42872	2026-03-20 02:34:12.755926	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	NFS	290	V4 Call (Reply In 42873) GETATTR FH: 0xc7011572
42873	2026-03-20 02:34:12.756013	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	362	V4 Reply (Call In 42872) GETATTR
42874	2026-03-20 02:34:12.757262	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	NFS	290	V4 Call (Reply In 42875) GETATTR FH: 0x3bc92b95
42875	2026-03-20 02:34:12.757347	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.8	NFS	362	V4 Reply (Call In 42874) GETATTR
42876	2026-03-20 02:34:12.795850	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	TCP	66	976 → 2049 [ACK] Seq=14333077 Ack=1382705 Win=26688 Len=0 TSval=2749783113 TSecr=3786939378
42877	2026-03-20 02:34:12.799280	10.10.1.8	10.10.1.50	TCP	66	988 → 2049 [ACK] Seq=78001 Ack=49629 Win=1188 Len=0 TSval=2328275863 TSecr=986324573
43224	2026-03-20 02:34:13.779818	10.10.1.3	10.10.1.50	NFS	354	V4 Call (Reply In 43232) EXCHANGE_ID
43232	2026-03-20 02:34:13.782406	10.10.1.50	10.10.1.3	NFS	246	V4 Reply (Call In 43224) EXCHANGE_ID

 

Cause

In NFSv4.1 and higher, the client identifies itself to the server using a Client Owner string. By default, many Linux distributions generate this string using the client’s hostname.
If two or more clients (common in cloned VMs or containerized environments) share the same hostname:
  1. Host A establishes a session.
  2. Host B connects with the same hostname; the server assumes Host A has rebooted or reconnected.
  3. The server "expires" Host A's session to allow Host B to connect.
  4. Host A then tries to recover its session, kicking off Host B.

This results in a continuous cycle of session resets and sequence ID replays. This leads to severe performance degradation, as the client must pause all I/O operations for a mandatory recovery period (typically 1 second) before re-initiating an EXCHANGE_ID to reclaim its session. 

Resolution

The Unity system is functioning as designed and adheres to the NFSv4.1/4.2 RFC standards. The server correctly terminates sessions when a duplicate Client ID (owner string) is presented to prevent data corruption.

To resolve the collision, each client must have a globally unique identifier. Ensure the hostname is unique on every client accessing the share: 

hostnamectl set-hostname <unique_hostname>

Restart the NFS service or reboot the client to ensure the new identifier is used for the next EXCHANGE_ID call to the Unity server.

 

 



            


        

        
        
Affected Products

        Dell EMC Unity







                        

                            

    

        

            

                
                    
 Article Properties

                
            

            

                

                        
Article Number: 000449536

                

                
                

                        
Article Type: Solution

                

                

                        
Last Modified: 07 نيسان 2026


                

                    

                            
Version:  1

                    


            


        

    

    

        

            

                
                    
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