We see a similar message all the time:
Aug 3 08:53:21 tofu kernel: nfs server netapp1.alt.net:/home: is alive again Aug 3 08:53:29 tofu kernel: nfs server netapp1.alt.net:/home: not responding Aug 3 08:53:29 tofu kernel: nfs server netapp1.alt.net:/home: is alive again
...
Note, the frequency!
This is when mostly reading/accessing files with occasional writes. This happens with NFS v2 and v3. Is there a way to determine whether this is a bug with our client OS (BSD/OS 3.0) or the NetApp?
You might do a "find . -ls" to see if you have any giant files or directories. If so, the "removing giant files" problem is likely.
The frequency is sufficiently close to the spacing between "consistency points" in the WAFL filesystem to make me suspicious that this is our problem and not the client's. Ken Whittaker in customer satisfaction probably knows the secret chicken-blood ritual that one must perform to see whether you are getting super-slow responses on some of your ops.
As Sean mentioned, a fix for this is on the way. Sean was kind enough not to mention that the bug was mine, and modest enough not to mention that the fix was his. :-)
Dave