diff --git a/ocaml/src/osd_access.ml b/ocaml/src/osd_access.ml
index ac007c0b..3fe42b3b 100644
--- a/ocaml/src/osd_access.ml
+++ b/ocaml/src/osd_access.ml
@@ -384,10 +384,24 @@ class osd_access
              and the 'set' in the requalification loop will eventually requalify it,
              fe, when rebalancing creates space on that OSD again
            *)
-       | End_of_file -> true, true
-       | _ -> true, true (* quite optimistic: whatever it was, it's gone already *)
+       | End_of_file                            -> true, true
+       | Unix.Unix_error(Unix.ECONNRESET,_,_)   -> true, false
+       | Unix.Unix_error(Unix.EPIPE,_,_)        -> true, false
+
+       | Unix.Unix_error(Unix.ECONNREFUSED,_,_) -> false, false
+       | _ -> (* by experience: don't be so optimistic *)
+          let () =
+            Lwt_log.ign_info_f
+              "%S was unforeseen, invalidating pool"
+              (Printexc.to_string exn)
+          in
+          true, false
+     in
+     let () =
+       Lwt_log.ign_info_f
+         "%S: should_invalidate:%b should_retry:%b"
+         (Printexc.to_string exn) should_invalidate_pool should_retry
      in
-
      (if should_invalidate_pool
       then
         begin
@@ -400,6 +414,7 @@ class osd_access
 
      if should_retry
      then with_osd_from_pool ~osd_id f
+          (* what to do with the error that comes from this ? *)
      else
        (if add_to_errors || should_invalidate_pool
         then
diff --git a/setup/setup.ml b/setup/setup.ml
index ebc3e186..38da0d25 100644
--- a/setup/setup.ml
+++ b/setup/setup.ml
@@ -2880,6 +2880,10 @@ module Test = struct
     let ns = "demo" in
     let () = t.proxy # upload_object ns fn "xxx" in
     let () = Deployment.restart_osds t in
+    let () =
+      Unix.sleep 2
+      (* we want to survive stale connections *)
+    in
     let () = t.proxy # upload_object ns fn "yyy" in
     0
 
@@ -3434,6 +3438,7 @@ let process_cmd_line () =
       "job_crud",        Test.job_crud, true;
       "pread_bench",     Bench.pread_bench, false;
       "enospc",          ASDBorder.enospc, false;
+      "restart",         Test.restart, true;
     ]
   in
   let print_suites () =