Programs not closing/opening DirectoryService problem?

Question

Hi all,
all of the machines we're testing using 10.6.2 are experiencing the same problem at intermittent intervals of failure to launch and close various programs,, safari, terminal, finder windows, etc. When this happens even external ssh connection attempts just hang. (I'll provide a tcpdump if desired).
When this issue happens the system is somewhat responsive, top still runs, the tail -f on the log files continues to produce output, xrg program reports various system status, etc.
I'll keep a root terminal ssh-ed in and run 'killall DirectoryService' the system then opens and also closes the waiting programs. I notice that any local waiting terminals start and request a login password.
When the system exhibits this issue top doesn't indicate any stuck processes, no entries in the DirectoryService.error.log or server.log or /var/log/system.log...
Our setup uses openldap, and home exported NFS directories. We have had no issue with leopard or prior releases.
Please let me know what additional info you'd like .. and thanks in advance!

Answer 1

thanks again for the reply!
we're not using kerberos. I setup a test ldap server from the ubuntu lts repos without making any changes to the schemas,, pretty much a stock install. I added 1 account and authenticated to it and keep the debuging terminal open and ran dtrace on the osx client. Below is the output when the client was in the problem state. What's interesting is that no calls to the ldap server were made until running 'Killall -9 DirectoryService' ,,, after that the shh session along with all the other programs that were hung resumed normal operation.
---dtrace output just before restarting DirectoryService---
3 18470 open:entry dashboardadviso /System/Library/WidgetResources/.parsers/.version
3 19256 open_nocancel:entry dashboardadviso /etc/sysinfo.conf
0 18470 open:entry launchd /private/var/db
0 18470 open:entry launchd /private/var/db
2 19256 open_nocancel:entry ntpd /var/db/ntp.drift.TEMP
3 18470 open:entry UserEventAgent /Library/Caches/com.apple.DiagnosticReporting.Networks.plist
0 19256 open_nocancel:entry launchd /etc/localtime
0 19256 open_nocancel:entry launchd /etc/localtime
0 19256 open_nocancel:entry launchd /etc/localtime
0 19256 open_nocancel:entry launchd /etc/localtime
dtrace: error on enabled probe ID 1 (ID 19256: syscall::open_nocancel:entry): invalid address (0x7fff5fc2dc77) in action #2 at DIF offset 24
1 18470 open:entry newsyslog /dev/dtracehelper
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /dev/urandom
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /dev/urandom
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /etc/localtime
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /etc/newsyslog.conf
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /etc/newsyslog.d/
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /etc/newsyslog.d/files.conf
1 19256 open_nocancel:entry newsyslog /etc/newsyslog.d/kerberos.conf
3 18470 open:entry UserEventAgent /Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/UserCrashHistory_00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F20A7544.pli st
3 19256 open_nocancel:entry syslogd /var/log/asl/2009.11.20.asl
3 18470 open:entry syslogd /var/log/system.log
0 18470 open:entry securityd /var/db/SystemEntropyCache