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A file handle is the basic unit of Network File System (NFS) access. They are references to files or directories independent of the file/directory name. Nearly all NFS or Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) require a file handle or file identifier. File handles are opaque to the client, however OneFS file handles are persistent across every node. In OneFS, file handle information is stored in inodes, and every file that uses the same inode also uses the same file handle. This is to prevent stale file handles across failovers. OneFS does not recycle file handles, and a file handle for a file can exist so long as its file exists.
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In general, file handles are crafted on the NFS server and can vary across platforms. In OneFS, a file handle is created when a Logical INode (LIN) is created at the time of file creation. File handles consist of a File System ID (FSID), export ID, and LIN of the file/directory in question. OneFS file handles are 64 bit, making them limitless in theory (total possible concurrent file handles = 18 quintillion * 10^19). At maximum use, it could theoretically take 1 billion years to exhaust the available Logical Inodes on an Isilon cluster. Since OneFS does not recycle Logical Inodes, it can be expected that a LIN associates to its counterpart file handle. The lincount job can be used to find the current LIN count of the cluster: # isi job start lincount # isi job reports view <JobID> Example: ------------ ps9500x3-2# isi job start lincount Started job [5983]ps9500x3-2# isi job reports view 5983 LinCount[5983] phase 1 (2025-11-25T20:40:04) -------------------------------------------- LINs traversed 28865 SINs traversed 0 JE/Error Count 0 JE/Time elapsed 7 seconds JE/Time working 9 secondsLinCount[5983] Job Summary -------------------------- Final Job State Succeeded Phase Executed 1 Since LINs are a part of OneFS file handles, a LIN can be extracted from a file handle. Follow the below link to learn about this process. How to obtain a LIN from a file handle Some Operating Systems and legacy application are unable to accept 64-bit file handles and unable to interact with the Isilon cluster due to this limitation. To work around this limitation OneFS can return 32-bit file IDs to clients, however this capability does come at a cost and caveat. If four-billion files are exceeded, or if there is enough turnover of files being created and deleted, the possibility exist that LINs wrap (modulo 32-bits). This can result in multiple LINs pointing to the same file handle. Mathematically this situation is highly improbable but the possibility for severe data loss does exist if the above conditions are met. Caution must be exercised when implementing 32-bit file IDs. As of this writing, no occurrence of this issue has ever been observed on an Isilon Cluster. How to implement the use of 32-bit file IDs over NFS Occasionally you may see issues with stale file handles. A stale file handle is a file handle which no longer corresponds to an active FSID. FSIDs are based on a Generation ID (GENID) which is similar to a "version number" for the file. Writes are not based on the latest GENID so a stale file handle error may be thrown. Stale file handles can result from client caching issues, or the file was not locked and was open for editing by two or more concurrent users. File locking is required to remedy stale file handles.
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