Linux NFS-HOWTO

Tavis Barr

         tavis@mahler.econ.columbia.edu
       

Nicolai Langfeldt

         janl@linpro.no
       

Seth Vidal

        skvidal@phy.duke.edu
      

2000-12-28


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. Number of Instances of NFSD
5.4. Memory Limits on the Input Queue
5.5. Overflow of Fragmented Packets
5.6. Turning Off Autonegotiation of NICs and Hubs
5.7. 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. 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
8. Using Linux NFS with Other OSes
8.1. AIX
8.2. BSD
8.3. Compaq Tru64 Unix
8.4. HP-UX
8.5. IRIX
8.6. Solaris
8.7. SunOS