Network Filesystems

NFS

Mounting an NFS Share

To mount an NFS share, install the nfs-utils package. If desired, the sv-netmount package provides a simple service that will automatically mount network filesystems at boot. Clients and servers using NFSv3 or older protocols require that the rpcbind and statd service be enabled. Clients and servers using NFSv4 exclusively do not require these services.

To mount an NFS share:

# mount -t <mount_type> <host>:/path/to/sourcedir /path/to/destdir

<mount_type> should be nfs4 if the server supports it, or nfs otherwise. <host> can be either the hostname or IP address of the server.

Mounting options can be found in mount.nfs(8), while unmounting options can be found in umount.nfs(8).

For example, to connect /volume on a server at 192.168.1.99 to an existing /mnt/volume directory on your local system:

# mount -t nfs 192.168.1.99:/volume /mnt/volume

To have the directory mounted when the system boots, add an entry to fstab(5):

192.168.1.99:/volume /mnt/volume nfs rw,hard 0 0

Refer to nfs(5) for information about the available mounting options.

Setting up a server (NFSv4, Kerberos disabled)

To run an NFS server, start by installing the nfs-utils package.

Edit /etc/exports to add a shared volume:

/storage/foo    *.local(rw,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)

This line exports the /storage/foo directory to any host in the local domain, with read/write access. For information about the no_subtree_check and no_root_squash options, and available options more generally, refer to exports(5).

Finally, enable the rpcbind, statd, and nfs-server services.

This will start your NFS server. To check if the shares are working, use the showmount(8) utility to check the NFS server status:

# showmount -e localhost

You can use nfs.conf(5) to configure your server. In particular, to disable legacy protocol versions and support only NFSv4, add the following section:

[nfsd]
vers3=n
vers4=y
vers4.1=y
vers4.2=y

You can verify the configured list of supported versions by inspecting the contents of the file /proc/fs/nfsd/versions.