I have made a fresh install of the diskless machine with the latest ubuntu (11.10) and the problem has gone away.
However, now that you mentioned about big files I noticed in the old diskless file system (ubuntu 10.10) there are many hidden .nfsxxxxxxxxxx files some of them quite big. I suppose they are left overs.... Here are a few examples (the size appears before the date): 115351481 16252 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16642048 Feb 26 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000002a50011000000e2 115351436 16792 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17236093 Sep 11 15:57 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000006e01f8c00000063 115351478 16020 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16404288 Dec 20 2010 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs000000000057c00900000032 115351480 16208 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16594500 Feb 16 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000002a5001200000036 115351483 16704 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17102785 May 5 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000002a5004d00000032 115351460 16824 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17283067 Oct 22 07:45 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000006e01fa40000009d 115351839 16820 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17284552 Oct 13 07:26 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000006e0211f0000001b 115351479 16152 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16536128 Feb 2 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000002a5000f00000026 115351470 16804 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17258153 Sep 17 07:51 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000006e01fae000000bd 115351755 16820 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17261588 Oct 5 07:33 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000006e020cb00000019 115351482 16380 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16769594 Apr 22 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/var/cache/apt/.nfs0000000002a5004c0000001b 115352738 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1681 Feb 2 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/etc/.nfs0000000006e024a200000026 115353070 2097156 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2147483648 Mar 18 2011 /mnt1/ubuntu/etc/.nfs00000000001b807b00000028 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/879334 Title: nfsd from nfs-kernel-server very slow and system load from 25%-100% from nfsd To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nfs-utils/+bug/879334/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
