Introduction to NFS Utilities
The NFS Utilities package contains
the userspace server and client tools necessary to use the kernel's
NFS abilities. NFS is a protocol that allows sharing file systems
over the network.
This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 12.4
platform.
Package Information
NFS Utilities Dependencies
Required
libevent-2.1.12, libnl-3.11.0, libtirpc-1.3.6,
libxml2-2.14.5, rpcsvc-proto-1.4.4, and SQLite-3.50.4
Optional
Cyrus SASL-2.1.28 (for SASL
authentication), libnsl-2.0.1 (for NIS client support), LVM2-2.03.34 (libdevmapper for NFSv4 support),
OpenLDAP-2.6.10 (for LDAP authentication),
MIT Kerberos V5-1.22.1 or libgssapi,
and librpcsecgss
(for GSS and RPC security support), and libcap-2.76
with PAM
Required (runtime)
rpcbind-1.2.8
Kernel
Configuration
Enable the following options in the kernel configuration (choose
client and/or server support as appropriate) and recompile the
kernel if necessary:
File systems --->
[*] Network File Systems ---> [NETWORK_FILESYSTEMS]
<*/M> NFS client support [NFS_FS]
<*/M> NFS server support [NFSD]
Select the appropriate sub-options that appear when the above
options are selected.
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
In BLFS we assume that nfs v3 will be used. If the server offers nfs v4 (for linux,
CONFIG_NFSD_V4) then auto-negotiation for v3 will fail and you
will need to add nfsver=3 to the
mount options. This also applies if that option is enabled in the
client's kernel, for
example in a distro trying to mount from a BLFS v3 server.
Even if neither end of the connection supports nfs v4, adding
nfsver=3 is still beneficial because
it prevents an error message "NFS: bad mount option value
specified: minorversion=1" being logged on every mount.
Installation
of NFS Utilities
Install NFS Utilities by running
the following commands:
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--sbindir=/usr/sbin \
--disable-nfsv4 \
--disable-gss \
LIBS="-lsqlite3 -levent_core" &&
make
Now, as the root user:
make install &&
chmod u+w,go+r /usr/sbin/mount.nfs &&
chown nobody:nogroup /var/lib/nfs
The tests for this package require that the package be installed.
In addition, the rpc.statd daemon must not be running and the tests
need to be run as the root user.
To test the results, issue, as root:
make check
Command Explanations
--disable-gss: Disables
GSSAPI support in this package. If you need to use it, make sure
that MIT Kerberos V5-1.22.1 is installed,
and that you have GSSAPI support enabled in libtirpc-1.3.6 as well.
LIBS="-lsqlite3
-levent_core": is required for the fsidd program.
chown nobody:nogroup
/var/lib/nfs: The rpc.statd program uses the
ownership of this directory to set it's UID and GID. This command
sets those to unprivileged entries.
Configuring NFS Utilities
Server Configuration
/etc/exports contains the exported
directories on NFS servers. Refer to the exports.5 manual page for the syntax of this
file. Also refer to the "NFS HowTo" available at https://nfs.sourceforge.net/nfs-howto/
for information on how to configure the servers and clients in a
secure manner. For example, for sharing the /home directory over the local network, the
following line may be added:
cat >> /etc/exports << EOF
/home 192.168.0.0/24(rw,subtree_check,anonuid=99,anongid=99)
EOF
Note
Be sure to replace the directory, network address. and prefix
above to match your network. The only space in the line above
should be between the directory and the network address.
Install the NFSv4 server units
included in the blfs-systemd-units-20241211 package to
start the server at boot.
make install-nfsv4-server
If you have disabled NFSv4 support, run the following command
as the root user to omit the
NFSv4 specific systemd units:
make install-nfs-server
You can edit the /etc/default/nfs-utils file to change the
startup options for NFS daemons. Defaults should be fine for
most use cases.
Client Configuration
/etc/fstab contains the directories
that are to be mounted on the client. Alternately the partitions
can be mounted by using the mount command with the proper
options. To mount the /home and
/usr partitions, add the following
to the /etc/fstab:
<server-name>:/home /home nfs rw,_netdev 0 0
<server-name>:/usr /usr nfs ro,_netdev 0 0
The options which can be used are specified in man 5 nfs . If both the client
and server are running recent versions of linux, most of the
options will be negotiated (but see the Note above on nfsver=3).
You can specify either rw or
ro, _netdev if the filesystem is to be automatically
mounted at boot, or noauto (and
perhaps user) for other filesystems.
If the fileserver is not running a recent version of linux, you
may need to specify other options.
You may need to enable autofs v4 in your kernel, and add the
option comment=systemd.automount.
Some machines may need this because systemd tries to mount the
external filesystems before the network is up. An alternative is
to run mount -a as
the root user after the system
has started.
Note
The following systemd units are
not required if the nfs-server units
are installed.
Install the units included in the
blfs-systemd-units-20241211
package to start the client services at boot.
make install-nfs-client
Contents
Installed Programs:
exportfs, fsidd, mountstats, mount.nfs,
mount.nfs4 (link to mount.nfs), nfsconf, nfsdclnts, nfsiostat,
nfsstat, rpc.mountd, rpc.nfsd, rpc.statd, rpcdebug, showmount,
sm-notify, start-statd, umount.nfs (link to mount.nfs), and
umount.nfs4 (link to mount.nfs)
Installed Libraries:
None
Installed Directories:
/var/lib/nfs
Short Descriptions
|
exportfs
|
maintains a list of NFS exported file systems
|
|
fsidd
|
offers a local UNIX domain socket interface for all NFS
userspace to query the reexport database
|
|
mountstats
|
displays NFS client per-mount statistics
|
|
mount.nfs
|
is used to mount a network share using NFS
|
|
mount.nfs4
|
is used to mount a network share using NFSv4
|
|
nfsconf
|
can be used to test for and retrieve configuration
settings from a range of nfs-utils configuration files
|
|
nfsdclnts
|
prints information about NFS clients
|
|
nfsiostat
|
reports input/output statistics for network filesystems
|
|
nfsstat
|
displays statistics kept about NFS client and server
activity
|
|
rpc.mountd
|
implements the NFS mount protocol on an NFS server
|
|
rpc.nfsd
|
implements the user level part of the NFS service on the
server
|
|
rpc.statd
|
is used by the NFS file locking service. Run on both
sides, client as well as server, when you want file
locking enabled
|
|
rpcdebug
|
sets or clears the kernel's NFS client and server debug
flags
|
|
showmount
|
displays mount information for an NFS server
|
|
sm-notify
|
is used to send Network Status Monitor reboot messages
|
|
start-statd
|
is a script called by nfsmount when mounting a filesystem
with locking enabled, if statd does not appear to be
running. It can be customised with whatever flags are
appropriate for the site
|
|
umount.nfs
|
is used to unmount a network share using NFS
|
|
umount.nfs4
|
is used to unmount a network share using NFSv4
|