Lustre fsync was semantically wrong before the fix of LU-4388, it didn't sync data on fsync at all (it get the semantic of fsync and fdatasync wrong), so it's not surprise this test fails often.
00000080:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907382:0:21907:0:(obd_class.h:2061:md_sync()) Process leaving (rc=0 : 0 : 0)
00000100:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907382:0:21907:0:(client.c:2323:__ptlrpc_req_finished()) Process entered
00000100:00000040:4.0:1356678959.907383:0:21907:0:(client.c:2335:__ptlrpc_req_finished()) @@@ refcount now 0 req@ffff8805bdf93800 x1422578972363063/t0(0) o44->lustre-MDT0000-mdc-ffff8806f504e800@10.151.25.187@o2ib:12/10 lens 448/408 e 0 to 0 dl 1356678997 ref 1 fl Complete:R/0/0 rc 0/0
00000100:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907386:0:21907:0:(client.c:2245:__ptlrpc_free_req()) Process entered
02000000:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907388:0:21907:0:(sec.c:1697:sptlrpc_cli_free_repbuf()) Process entered
02000000:00000010:4.0:1356678959.907388:0:21907:0:(sec_null.c:231:null_free_repbuf()) kfreed 'req->rq_repbuf': 1024 at ffff8805d7a85000.
02000000:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907389:0:21907:0:(sec.c:1711:sptlrpc_cli_free_repbuf()) Process leaving
00000020:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907390:0:21907:0:(genops.c:963:class_import_put()) Process entered
00000020:00000040:4.0:1356678959.907390:0:21907:0:(genops.c:970:class_import_put()) import ffff880379630800 refcount=10 obd=lustre-MDT0000-mdc-ffff8806f504e800
00000020:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907391:0:21907:0:(genops.c:979:class_import_put()) Process leaving
02000000:00000010:4.0:1356678959.907392:0:21907:0:(sec_null.c:201:null_free_reqbuf()) kfreed 'req->rq_reqbuf': 512 at ffff8805d8599600.
02000000:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907394:0:21907:0:(sec.c:437:sptlrpc_req_put_ctx()) Process entered
02000000:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907394:0:21907:0:(sec.c:453:sptlrpc_req_put_ctx()) Process leaving
00000100:00000010:4.0:1356678959.907395:0:21907:0:(client.c:2299:__ptlrpc_free_req()) kfreed 'request': 928 at ffff8805bdf93800.
00000100:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907396:0:21907:0:(client.c:2300:__ptlrpc_free_req()) Process leaving
00000100:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907396:0:21907:0:(client.c:2339:__ptlrpc_req_finished()) Process leaving (rc=1 : 1 : 1)
00020000:00000002:4.0:1356678959.907397:0:21907:0:(lov_object.c:787:lov_lsm_addref()) lsm ffff8805b90ed640 addref 2 by ffff880382188280.
00020000:00000002:4.0:1356678959.907398:0:21907:0:(lov_object.c:799:lov_lsm_decref()) lsm ffff8805b90ed640 decref 2 by ffff880382188280.
00000080:00000001:4.0:1356678959.907399:0:21907:0:(file.c:2121:ll_fsync()) Process leaving (rc=0 : 0 : 0)
Above log shows fsync synced meta data only.
Given fsync has been fixed since 2.6 (by LU-4388), I think we can simply re-enable these two tests to see if it will go well.
Landed for 2.9