What is Network File System (NFS)
Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system that allows various users to access and share files over a network. It is commonly used in Linux and Unix systems as an alternative to other file sharing protocols like SMB or CIFS.
What is needed?
Since NFS uses a server to client(s) relationship, we will use the following:
NFS server – server.example.com – 172.25.1.5
NFS client – client.example.com – 172.25.1.4
let’s ensure that both of our systems are up to date. we will use the following command on both the server and client:
# sudo yum -y update
And finally, we need to install the nfs-utils package to both our systems.
# sudo yum -y install nfs-utils (must do on both servers and client)
Configure the server
Step 1: Start and enable the newly installed nfs-utils service.
#sudo systemctl start nfs-server.service
#sudo systemctl enable nfs-server.service
Step 2: Confirm the nfs-server service is up and running.
#sudo systemctl status nfs-server.service
nfs-server.service – NFS server and services
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-server.service; enable>
Active: active (exited)
Main PID: 61026 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 0 (limit: 50657)
server.example.com systemd[1]: Starting NFS server a
server.example.com systemd[1]: Started NFS server
lines 1-10/10 (END)
The NFS service is now up and running on your server. Next, let’s create an NFS share.
Create and export the share.
First, we need to designate a folder for sharing.
# sudo mkdir -p /test/nfs_share/
# sudo chown -R nobody: /test/nfs_share/
# sudo chmod -R 777 /test/nfs_share/
Next, we need to create an /etc/exports file.
# vi /etc/exports
Make the following entry in the new file:
/test/nfs_share 172.25.1.5 (rw,sync,no_all_squash,root_squash)
The parameters used here.
- rw – Allows us to read and write to the NFS share.
- sync – Requires writing of changes to the disk before any other operations are completed.
- no_all_squash – Maps all UIDs and GIDs from the client request to the identical UIDs and GIDs on the NFS server.
- root_squash – Maps requests from the client-side root user to an anonymous UID/GID.
Now that we have created the share, let’s export it to the client.
# exportfs -rav
exporting 172.25.1.5:/test/nfs_share
Notice that I mapped the entire subnet here. You can include only a single IP or hostname here if you prefer.
with the server-side completed, we can now focus our attention on the client machine.
Configure the client
Since we already updated our system and installed the nfs-utils package as shown above
Create an entry in /etc/host for the NFS server. It should look like this:
# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
172.25.1.5 localhost
Now, let’s see if anything is shared from the NFS server. Our server share path /test/nfs_share/ as a shared directory.
# showmount –exports nfs-server
Export list for nfs-server:
/test/nfs_share/ 172.25.1.5
Next, create a directory on the client machine to mount the remote share.
# sudo mkdir p /test/client_share
Now that we have created a mount directory, let’s mount the share.
# sudo mount -t nfs 172.25.1.5:/test/nfs_share/ /home/test/client_share
Run the following command to verify the share:
# sudo mount | grep -i nfs
Finally, to ensure that the mount is persistent across reboots, add the following line to the /etc/fstab file:
172.25.0.5:/test/nfs_share/ /home/test/client_share nfs defaults 0 0
Easy day.
Proof of concept
Create a file on the server in /test/nfs_share/ named test_doc for testing purpose.
# ls -lrt
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 39 Jun 25 16:21 test_doc
Let’s see if our test_doc is exported to our client machine via NFS.
On the client machine:
# cd test/client_share/
#client client_share]$ ls
test_doc
