Hello,
When doing command line import I sometimes get an Ice.ConnectionLostException.  It looks like this exception is thrown whenever the negotiation with Ice on how to communicate in OMEROMetadataStoreClient takes more than 6 seconds. 
A little bit about the setup.  Virtual machines (VMware running RHEL6.2), not much local disk, so using NFS.  I am using fastcgi-tcp.  I have one test server and two production servers.  The code is modified OMERO 4.3.3
On my test server the negotiation step takes 0.5-2 s, and never encountered the problem there.  On the production servers, the negotiation step takes from 4 s upwards, sometimes as much as 45 s.  As far as I can tell the ConnectionLostException is thrown whenever this step takes more than 6 s.  I am not aware of any differences between the test server and the production servers apart from different levels of load.  Our systems group access an image every 3 seconds on the production servers, which gives .
Looking at the Blitz-0.log I do not see anything useful.
A couple of questions:
Anyone seen these problem before?
Can I just increase a time limit somewhere?
Is this NFS related?
Example output first from a failed and then succesful case.
[pdb_em@ves-ebi-81 scripts]$ ./importToOmeroProd.bash 
/nfs/web-hx/pdbe/em/data/incoming /nfs/web-hx/pdbe/em/scripts
emd_1051.map.gz emd_5448.map.gz
got a map: /nfs/web-hx/pdbe/em/data/incoming/emd_1051.map.gz
Previous session expired for pdb_em on ves-ebi-81.ebi.ac.uk:4064
Created session 3e5be84b-6370-4750-bf6b-c9f06f7feb2f (pdb_em@ves-ebi-81.ebi.ac.uk:4064). Idle timeout: 10.0 min. Current group: public
WARNING:omero.client:Ignoring error in client.__del__:<class 'Glacier2.SessionNotExistException'>
2012-08-15 17:36:06,413 0          [      main] INFO          ome.formats.importer.ImportConfig  - OMERO Version: 4.3.3-DEV-ice34
2012-08-15 17:36:06,454 41         [      main] INFO          ome.formats.importer.ImportConfig  - Bioformats version: 4.4-DEV revision: f91d951 date: 12 January 2012
2012-08-15 17:36:06,595 182        [      main] INFO   formats.importer.cli.CommandLineImporter  - Log levels -- Bio-Formats: ERROR OMERO.importer: INFO
2012-08-15 17:36:07,811 1398       [      main] INFO      ome.formats.importer.ImportCandidates  - Depth: 4 Metadata Level: MINIMUM
2012-08-15 17:36:09,452 3039       [      main] INFO      ome.formats.importer.ImportCandidates  - 1 file(s) parsed into 1 group(s) with 1 call(s) to setId in 1635ms. (1640ms total) [0 unknowns]
2012-08-15 17:36:19,579 13166      [      main] ERROR                   ome.system.UpgradeCheck  - Error reading from url: http://upgrade.openmicroscopy.org.uk?ve ... ystems+Inc. "connect timed out"
2012-08-15 17:36:19,962 13549      [      main] INFO       ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Attempting initial SSL connection to ves-ebi-81.ebi.ac.uk:4064
2012-08-15 17:36:35,685 29272     <--- 16 s [      main] ERROR  formats.importer.cli.CommandLineImporter  - Error during import process.
Ice.ConnectionLostException
    error = 0
	at IceInternal.ConnectRequestHandler.getConnection(ConnectRequestHandler.java:240)
	at IceInternal.ConnectRequestHandler.sendRequest(ConnectRequestHandler.java:138)
	at IceInternal.Outgoing.invoke(Outgoing.java:66)
	at Ice._ObjectDelM.ice_isA(_ObjectDelM.java:30)
	at Ice.ObjectPrxHelperBase.ice_isA(ObjectPrxHelperBase.java:111)
	at Ice.ObjectPrxHelperBase.ice_isA(ObjectPrxHelperBase.java:77)
	at Glacier2.RouterPrxHelper.checkedCast(RouterPrxHelper.java:2268)
	at omero.client.getRouter(client.java:695)
	at omero.client.createSession(client.java:629)
	at omero.client.joinSession(client.java:559)
	at ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient.initialize(OMEROMetadataStoreClient.java:614)
	at ome.formats.importer.ImportConfig.createStore(ImportConfig.java:287)
	at ome.formats.importer.cli.CommandLineImporter.<init>(CommandLineImporter.java:96)
	at ome.formats.importer.cli.CommandLineImporter.main(CommandLineImporter.java:394)
Successful case:
/nfs/web-hx/pdbe/em/data/incoming ~
emd_2153.map.gz emd_2154.map.gz emd_2161.map.gz emd_5448.map.gz
got a map: /nfs/web-hx/pdbe/em/data/incoming/emd_2153.map.gz
WARNING:omero.client:Ignoring error in client.__del__:<class
'Glacier2.SessionNotExistException'>
WARNING:omero.client:Ignoring error in client.__del__:<class
'Glacier2.SessionNotExistException'>
Created session d2748c47-79e7-41f0-86b6-4d2e38f37106
(pdb_em@ves-ebi-80.ebi.ac.uk:4064). Idle timeout: 10.0 min. Current group: public
2012-08-13 12:00:35,846 0          [      main] INFO         
ome.formats.importer.ImportConfig  - OMERO Version: 4.3.3-DEV-ice34
2012-08-13 12:00:35,871 25         [      main] INFO         
ome.formats.importer.ImportConfig  - Bioformats version: 4.4-DEV revision: f91d951
date: 12 January 2012
2012-08-13 12:00:35,985 139        [      main] INFO  
formats.importer.cli.CommandLineImporter  - Log levels -- Bio-Formats: ERROR
OMERO.importer: INFO
2012-08-13 12:00:36,872 1026       [      main] INFO     
ome.formats.importer.ImportCandidates  - Depth: 4 Metadata Level: MINIMUM
2012-08-13 12:00:38,502 2656       [      main] INFO     
ome.formats.importer.ImportCandidates  - 1 file(s) parsed into 1 group(s) with 1
call(s) to setId in 1623ms. (1629ms total) [0 unknowns]
2012-08-13 12:00:48,719 12873      [      main] ERROR                  
ome.system.UpgradeCheck  - Error reading from url:
http://upgrade.openmicroscopy.org.uk?ve ... ystems+Inc.
"connect timed out"
2012-08-13 12:00:49,139 13293      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Attempting initial SSL connection to
ves-ebi-80.ebi.ac.uk:4064
2012-08-13 12:00:50,776 14930    <---- 1.7 seconds later so OK  [      main] INFO                 
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Insecure connection requested, falling back
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Server: 4.3.3
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Client: Beta4.3.3-DEV-ice34
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - Java Version: 1.6.0_29
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - OS Name: Linux
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - OS Arch: amd64
2012-08-13 12:00:51,913 16067      [      main] INFO      
ome.formats.OMEROMetadataStoreClient  - OS Version: 2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.x86_64
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - File format: Medical Research Council
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - Base reader: loci.formats.in.MRCReader
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - Metadata only import? false
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - Archiving enabled? false
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - Container metadata only import? false
2012-08-13 12:00:52,346 16500      [      main] INFO        
ome.formats.importer.ImportLibrary  - Reader is not of HCS domain, use metafile:
true
2012-08-13 12:00:52,488 16642      [      main] WARN      
ome.formats.model.ReferenceProcessor  - Unknown target class for LSID: Image:0
2012-08-13 12:01:03,653 27807      [      main] INFO  
ormats.importer.cli.LoggingImportMonitor  - IMPORT_DONE
Imported pixels:
251
2012-08-13 12:01:03,654 27808      [      main] INFO     
ome.formats.importer.cli.ErrorHandler  - Number of errors: 0
Thankful for for any pointers,
Ingvar
			
		
    
