How to set up an NFS server (Red Hat/Centos 6.x)

How to Install NFS Server on Red Hat/Centos 6.x

NFS stands for (Network File System) it is a mechanism used by UNIX like hosts to share files across networks. There are two versions mostly used NVFv3 and NFSv4 – there are many differences between both. I am not going to cover them.

NFS used to be dependent on a service called portmap and used port 111, which was a bit flaky. NFS is much more reliable and faster than it used to be; we can run it over TCP and across firewalls. I am not going to demonstrate it on this post.

I am not going to go over discussions about security, and how to lock down your NFS server, or open iptables ports. I assume your iptables will be off. Security is a very complex and deep subject. My intention is only to give you the knowledge to set up an NFS quickly and start using it.

Perhaps I’ll write another post on how to secure your NFS server.

Packages requirement

·         nfs

·         nfslock

·         rpcbind

The following RPC processes facilitate NFS services:

·         rpc.mountd

·         rpc.nfsd

·         lockd

·         rpc.statd

·         rpc.rquotad

·         rpc.idmapd

Installing Packages

·         nfs-utils.x86_64

·         nfs-utils-lib.x86_64

·         rpcbind.x86_64

[root@centos63 ~]# yum install nfs-utils.x86_64 nfs-utils-lib.x86_64 rpcbind.x86_64 –y

Services to start at boot time

You need to make sure some important services are running.

 

[root@centos63 ~]# chkconfig --level 2345 rpcbind on

[root@centos63 ~]# chkconfig --level 2345 nfs on

[root@centos63 ~]# service rpcbind start

[root@centos63 ~]# service nfs start

 

Setting up the NFS export

[root@centos63 ~]# mkdir /nfs

[root@centos63 ~]# vi /etc/exports   

 

Add the line below, save and quite the file

/nfs    *(rw)

 

Note: The line about means - export /nfs folder to any client with read and write permissions.

I advise locking it down a bit and export it to your subnet, or single IPs.

[root@centos63 ~]# exportfs –a

[root@centos63 ~]# exportfs

/nfs            <world>

Note: The above command will export your folder configuration.

 

Let’s test it?!

[root@centos63 ~]# mount -t nfs localhost:nfs /media/

[root@centos63 ~]# df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root

                       47G  1.2G   44G   3% /

tmpfs                 499M     0  499M   0% /dev/shm

/dev/sda1             485M   73M  387M  16% /boot

localhost:nfs          47G  1.2G   44G   3% /media

It works; see the line in red above. This tells us that the file system /nfs is mounted on /media from host ‘localhost’, which is just the same server.

I hope you enjoy this post.

I will at some point write about more complex scenarios, but I would like to give you the initial knowledge, so you can get up and running quickly.

 

By Renato de Oliveira