Isilon: Running 'isi' commands gives "Incomplete response from server"

Summary: Running 'isi' commands gives "Incomplete response from server."

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Symptoms

Certain nodes give the error that there is an 'Incomplete response from server' when running isi commands.

Here are a few examples:
# isi job status
Incomplete response from server.

# isi quota quotas list
Incomplete response from server.

# isi smb openfile list
Incomplete response from server.

Access to the WebUI may not be available through the node that is having this error. Jobs like Flexprotect, may also not be able to run.

Cause

The isi_papi_d process is in a bad state.

Resolution

SSH into the node that is experiencing the error.

1. Verify that isi_papi_d is enabled. 
# isi services -a isi_papi_d

2. If it is enabled, proceed to Step 3. If it is not enabled, run the command below to enable isi_papi_d
  
# isi services -a isi_papi_d enable

Try running the 'isi' command that was not working previously. If the command still has an error, proceed to Step 3. If the command works as it should, the problem is resolved.
 
3. Run the command below to see if the process is running on all the nodes and to see the PID of the process.
  
# ps auxwww | grep isi_papi | grep -v grep

4. Disable isi_papi_d
  
# isi services -a isi_papi_d disable
5. Wait 10 seconds, and then verify that the process is no longer running.
  
# ps auxwww | grep isi_papi | grep -v grep
If there is no output, skip to Step 10. Otherwise, proceed to Step 6.
 
6. Try to kill all the processes.
  
# killall -9 isi_papi_d

7. Check to see if the processes are still running.
  
# ps auxwww | grep isi_papi | grep -v grep
If there is no output, skip to Step 10. Otherwise, proceed to Step 8.
 
8. Try to kill the PID.
  
# pkill <PID>

For example, if the output of the 'ps auxwww' command looking like this: 
 root    5439  0.0  0.5 185264 30932  ??  Ds   10:31AM 126:21.86 /usr/sbin/isi_papi_d

The PID would be 5439.

9. Check to see if there are processes still running.
  
# ps auxwww | grep isi_papi | grep -v grep
If there is no output, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, contact Isilon Support for continued investigation.

10. Since there is no output when you grep for the isi_papi process, that means the process has successfully stopped. Turn the isi_papi_d service back on and then test the 'isi' commands that were not working previously.
  
# isi services -a isi_papi_d enable
 
If the commands work, the problem is resolved. If the issue is still ongoing, contact Isilon Support for further investigation.

Affected Products

Isilon
Article Properties
Article Number: 000052211
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2025
Version:  6
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