🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello all:

I have a question/problem concerning shutdown.  The shutdown message from
the server is not reaching all of the clients in /etc/rmtab. 

Background:  

At the SEI we have ~180 workstations (Sun3's VAXStations, uVaxen,
DECstations) which nfs mount filesystems off of a group of Sun3/280
servers.  A typical client will mount at least 2 mount points off of a
given fileserver.  The server records the mount in /etc/rmtab.  The file
/etc/rmtab has 800 lines in it although there are only 155 unique
hostnames.  At the time of shutdown, some of the hosts may be up and some
may not.  When the operators go to backup the servers, they issue a
shutdown +10 request.  The problem is that the shutdown message does not
reach all of the clients listed in /etc/rmtab.  Does anyone have any clue
why this happens.  Is there a workaround.  It is very important that
people here know when there server is going down

Some initial questions: 

* Is 10 minutes not enough time to send to all 155 hosts or ~800 if it
  sends a message for every remote mount?

* Is it that the clients are not able to hear the message because shutdown
  (rwall) uses UDP?  If so, shutdown send multiple shutdown messages as the
  shutdown time gets closer so I would expect at least one of the messages
  to get through.

Thanks
Tony Gale
atg@sei.cmu.edu