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NFS Mount Failure

NFS mount failures during training cause silent data corruption, hangs, or training failures when accessing shared storage.

Quick answer

NFS mount failures during training cause silent data corruption, hangs, or training failures when accessing shared storage.

Reliability#nfs#mount#stale-handle#shared-storage#reliability

What this failure is

NFS Mount Failure is a Reliability failure seen during ML training runs. NFS mount failures during training cause silent data corruption, hangs, or training failures when accessing shared storage. Common tags: Nfs, Mount, Stale Handle, Shared Storage.

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Why it happens (the mechanism)

NFS server is down or unreachable. Network interruption between client and NFS server. NFS server overloaded with requests. Stale file handle after file deleted on server. NFS version mismatch between client and server. Taken together, these mechanisms explain why the failure is reproducible, why it tends to surface on specific workloads or scales, and why generic mitigation attempts often fall short without addressing the underlying cause.

What you'll observe

  • Training hangs at data loading
  • NFS file access is slow or times out
  • Stale file handle errors on checkpoint save

Common symptoms and what they mean

SymptomWhy it happens
NFS: stale file handleNFS server is down or unreachable
Connection reset by peerNetwork interruption between client and NFS server
NFS server not respondingNFS server overloaded with requests

Which systems are affected

  • Training on shared NFS storage
  • Multi-node training with shared data
  • Saving checkpoints to NFS

How to confirm this is the problem

Use this checklist to test the hypothesis against a small reproduction. No single line proves the root cause, so preserve the preceding events and compare one variable at a time.

  • ✓Reproduce the failure from a clean checkpoint/seed: the symptom must appear without warm-up state from a previous run.
  • ✓Verified signal present: NFS: stale file handle
  • ✓Verified signal present: Connection reset by peer
  • ✓Verified signal present: NFS server not responding
  • ✓A targeted fix from the "How to fix it" section eliminates or substantially reduces the symptom within one validation pass.

The fix and the prevention pattern

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Related failures to investigate next

Bytedance Sequence Length Straggler often co-occurs with this failure because both share underlying assumptions about reliability; if you fix this entry but still see drift, validate the related primary cause next. bytedance sequence length straggler →
Training Checkpoint Corruption On Write often co-occurs with this failure because both share underlying assumptions about reliability; if you fix this entry but still see drift, validate the related neighboring cause next. training checkpoint corruption on write →
Checkpoint Partial Save often co-occurs with this failure because both share underlying assumptions about reliability; if you fix this entry but still see drift, validate the related neighboring cause next. checkpoint partial save →

Root cause

  • NFS server is down or unreachable
  • Network interruption between client and NFS server
  • NFS server overloaded with requests
  • Stale file handle after file deleted on server
  • NFS version mismatch between client and server

The fix and how to prevent it

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References

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