Linux NFS-HOWTO

Tavis Barr

tavis dot barr at liu dot edu

Nicolai Langfeldt

janl at linpro dot no

Seth Vidal

skvidal at phy dot duke dot edu

Tom McNeal

trmcneal at attbi dot com

2002-08-25

Revision History
Revision v3.1	2002-08-25	Revised by: tavis
Typo in firewalling section in 3.0
Revision v3.0	2002-07-16	Revised by: tavis
Updates plus additions to performance, security

Table of Contents

1. Preamble

1.1. Legal stuff
1.2. Disclaimer
1.3. Feedback
1.4. Translation
1.5. Dedication

2. Introduction

2.1. What is NFS?
2.2. What is this HOWTO and what is it not?
2.3. Knowledge Pre-Requisites
2.4. Software Pre-Requisites: Kernel Version and nfs-utils
2.5. Where to get help and further information

3. Setting Up an NFS Server

3.1. Introduction to the server setup
3.2. Setting up the Configuration Files
3.3. Getting the services started
3.4. Verifying that NFS is running
3.5. Making changes to /etc/exports later on

4. Setting up an NFS Client

4.1. Mounting remote directories
4.2. Getting NFS File Systems to Be Mounted at Boot Time
4.3. Mount options

5. Optimizing NFS Performance

5.1. Setting Block Size to Optimize Transfer Speeds
5.2. Packet Size and Network Drivers
5.3. Overflow of Fragmented Packets
5.4. NFS over TCP
5.5. Timeout and Retransmission Values
5.6. Number of Instances of the NFSD Server Daemon
5.7. Memory Limits on the Input Queue
5.8. Turning Off Autonegotiation of NICs and Hubs
5.9. Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Behavior in NFS
5.10. Non-NFS-Related Means of Enhancing Server Performance

6. Security and NFS

6.1. The portmapper
6.2. Server security: nfsd and mountd
6.3. Client Security
6.4. NFS and firewalls (ipchains and netfilter)
6.5. Tunneling NFS through SSH
6.6. Summary

7. Troubleshooting

7.1. Unable to See Files on a Mounted File System
7.2. File requests hang or timeout waiting for access to the file.
7.3. Unable to mount a file system
7.4. I do not have permission to access files on the mounted volume.
7.5. When I transfer really big files, NFS takes over all the CPU cycles on the server and it screeches to a halt.
7.6. Strange error or log messages
7.7. Real permissions don't match what's in /etc/exports.
7.8. Flaky and unreliable behavior
7.9. nfsd won't start
7.10. File Corruption When Using Multiple Clients

8. Using Linux NFS with Other OSes

8.1. AIX
8.2. BSD
8.3. Tru64 Unix
8.4. HP-UX
8.5. IRIX
8.6. Solaris
8.7. SunOS

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		Preamble