rsync+ssh2 from Tru64 unix to linux has intermittent hangs.

[Bob Kenney]

	This is odd:

	We're using rsync to mirror multiple directories from a server to
    two clients.  The server is running Tru64 v5.1a, client A is running
    Redhat Linux 8.0, and client B is running Tru64 v4.0g.

	The mirrors for both clients are running at the same time interval
    (10 minutes, offset by 5 minutes).

    All machines are running rsync v2.5.6, and using ssh2 v3.2.3 as the
    transport rather than rsh.  The commands used to rsync to both clients
    are exactly the same:

   /usr/local/bin/rsync -rltvR -e "/usr/local/bin/ssh2 -x" \
	--size-only --delete <source_dir> <destination_host>:<dest_dir>


	The destination directory on both clients for the files/directories
    being mirrored is a samba share, the active share being on client A, and
    the backup(inactive) share on client B.   The files in the share, and the
    samba share itself are set to be read only by the PC's accessing it.




	The rsync mirror to client B(the Tru64 box) has no problems at
    all.


	The rsync mirror to client A(RH Linux 8.0) has this very odd
    intermittent hang.  About once every 3-4 hours, it hangs.  No
    correlation with a) which directory it's mirroring, or b) the time
    of day, or c) how many minutes into the hour it is.

	When I look at the process(es) on the server, the rsync and ssh2
    processes are still there, but getting no run time. Looking at the
    client box, there is no rsync server, but the sshd2 process is still
    there.   No corresponding errors in the error log on the server from
    either the local or remote rsync processes. If we just let it go without
    killing the hung rsync process, it times out anyways after almost exactly
    one hour.

	About the only thing I could think of was that we're having problems
    with file locking on the Tru64 server(applications have files open &
    possibly hard-locked in the areas rsync is mirroring), or file locking
    of some kind(?) by samba on client A when people are using it.  I tried
    altering rsync on the server so that file reads were non-blocking, but
    that didn't help. Not sure about samba on the client, or how I would go
    about testing it.

	About the only other complication is that the linux box is running
    kernel 2.4.20, with the ACL/EA patch added.  I've tried recompiling
    rsync there after adding the ACL/EA patch for rsync, but that didn't
    seem to help/hinder in any way.  Not sure if this is an issue - the
    source files on the Tru64 server do not have ACL's on them, so it
    shouldn't be(?).





	Very frustrating.  We've been banging our heads against this ever
    since we set up the linux box and made it the primary samba share. I
    don't recall us having any issues like this when client B was the
    primary(only) samba share.




	Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.


-- 
  Bob Kenney