How to install NFS server on ubuntu 14.04

NFS ( Network file systems ) is used to share files with other computers over the network.

It is mainly used for centralized home folders. This article explains, how to setup NFS server on ubuntu 14.04 . also explains about mounting nfs shares on client machine .

Setup NFS server on ubuntu 14.04

Step 1 » Update the repositories.

sudo apt-get update

Step 2 » Install nfs server package by typing the command.

sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

Step 3 » Make directory you want to share with other computers.

sudo mkdir /nhome

Step 4 » Here /etc/exports is the main config file for NFS.

Vim /etc/exports

#Share access to all networks

/nhome        *(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

#Share access to particular network

/nhome1       192.168.1.1/24(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

#Share access to particular host

/nhome2       host.example.com(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

/nhome3       192.168.1.153(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

#Share access to all hosts in particular domain

/nhome4       *linux.com(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

·         rw: This option gives the client computer both read and write access to the volume.

·         ro:  This option gives the client computer both read-only access to the volume.

·         sync: This option forces NFS to write changes to disk before replying. This results in a more stable and consistent environment, since the reply reflects the actual state of the remote volume.

·         nosubtreecheck: This option prevents subtree checking, which is a process where the host must check whether the file is actually still available in the exported tree for every request. This can cause many problems when a file is renamed while the client has it opened. In almost all cases, it is better to disable subtree checking.

·         norootsquash: By default, NFS translates requests from a root user remotely into a non-privileged user on the server. This was supposed to be a security feature by not allowing a root account on the client to use the filesystem of the host as root. This directive disables this for certain shares.

Step 5 » Start service by the below command.

sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server start

Step 6 » Now check the NFS share status.

linux@ubuntu:~$ sudo exportfs -u

/nhome1 192.168.1.1/24

/nhome2 192.168.1.153

/nhome3 *.linux.com

/nhome world

Ubuntu – Client side

Step 1 » Install nfs client and dependencies .

sudo apt-get install nfs-common rpcbind

Step 2 » Create a directory /rhome .

sudo mkdir /rhome

Step 3 » Mount the remote share /nhome on local directory /rhome.

Temporary mount

sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.1.153:/nhome /rhome

add the following line in /etc/fstab file for permanent mount.

192.168.1.153:/nhome /rhome nfs rw,sync,hard,intr 0 0

Step 4 » Check the mounted share directory using mount command.

linux@ubuntu:~$ mount

rpc_pipefs on /run/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)

192.168.1.153:/nhome on /rhome type nfs (rw,vers=4,addr=192.168.1.153,clientaddr=192.168.1.201)

Now local rhome is remote NFS directory . whatever data copied to that folder will be stored in remote directory /nhome.