HOWTO: NFS Server/Client

[Graphite]

I can't persuade this tutorial to work for me.

Server:
PC running Ubuntu 6.06
IP address 192.168.2.4

Client:
Laptop running Ubuntu 7.10
IP address 192.168.2.3

The two computers are hooked up to a router, through which they can access the internet. Each of the computers is able to ping the other.

In the server computer I typed:

cd /
sudo gedit etc/exports

...and saved the file containing this:

# /etc/exports: the access control list for filesystems which may be exported 
#                                      to NFS clients. See exports(5).
/home/bugs 192.168.2.3(rw,no_root_squash,async)

After saving that file I ran

bugs@bugs-desktop:/$ sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
 * Stopping rps mountd...                                           [ok]
 * Stopping rpc nfsd...                                                [ok]
 * Unexporting directories for NFS kernel daemon...   [ok]
 * Exporting directories for NFS kernel daemon...       [ok]
 * Starting rpc nfsd...                                                  [ok]
 * Starting rpc mountd...                                              [ok]
bugs@bugs-desktop:/$ sudo exportfs -a
bugs@bugs-desktop:/$

Then on the client laptop:

bugs@bugs-laptop:~$ cd /
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$ sudo mkdir files
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$ sudo mount 192.168.2.4:/home/bugs /files
mount.nfs: mount to NFS server '192.168.2.4' failed: timed out, retrying
mount.nfs: mount to NFS server '192.168.2.4' failed: timed out, retrying
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$

Does anyone know what the problem here is?
I started trying the GUI approach (System>administration>Shared Folders) with no success and now this isn't working either. I've spent hours reading and experimenting and it's driving me crazy!

[dgrafix]

Can you ping it and do you have the correct ports open?

One thing i did when i set this up was to do this, im not sure what it does exactly but it was in the how to i followed:

After doing that bit you did above:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure portmap
sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

Ps, i dont know weather you want this or not, but if you want to make it available to your whole lan use: 192.168.2.1/24 in the exports. This will allow any pc with the first 24bits / 3 bytes (192.168.2)

[grahamandchenine]

Just to add the thumbs up.

Worked a treat.

Not sure why it needs to be more complicated than a Fedora server, but seems far more reliable.

THX.

[MountainX]

Differences in maximum block sizes between client/server file systems can cause programs to crash

Those are all nice tips! Could you explain the above in more detail? How do we make sure we avoid this problem?

I set up two different shares that are both located on the same drive on the server with different block size definitions as shown below. Is this a problem?

Client fstab:
192.168.100.3:/SmallDataFiles /home/myuser/SmallDataFiles nfs nocto,rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,hard,intr 0 0

192.168.100.3:/Music /home/myuser/Music nfs nocto,rw,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,hard,intr 0 0

[konus]

This really help me .... Thanx!!!

[MountainX]

Can anyone install a deb (using GDebi) from a network share (nfs)? When I browse to the nfs share in nautilus and right click the deb file and install it the installer crashes. If I copy the file to the local HDD, the installer works fine. Is this an nfs issue?

[Tzuikka]

Hi!
I'm having the exact same problem as Graphite has.

Then on the client laptop:
Code:

bugs@bugs-laptop:~$ cd /
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$ sudo mkdir files
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$ sudo mount 192.168.2.4:/home/bugs /files
mount.nfs: mount to NFS server '192.168.2.4' failed: timed out, retrying
mount.nfs: mount to NFS server '192.168.2.4' failed: timed out, retrying
bugs@bugs-laptop:/$

I'm quite sure that I have opened the necessary ports and can ping both, the server and the client.

This is getting really frustrating
Has anyone found a solution for this?

[jammer84]

Cheers mate, This worked a dream!!!

[couzin2000]

Editing /etc/exports
the /etc/exports file is used for creating a share on the NFS server

invoke your favorite text editor or
sudo vi /etc/exports

Here are some quick examples of what you could add to your /etc/exports

For Full Read Write Permissions allowing any computer from 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.255

• /files 192.168.1.1/24(rw,no_root_squash,async)

Or for Read Only from a single machine

• /files 192.168.1.2 (ro,async)

save this file and then in a terminal type
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

I'd love to find out about these keywords here:

• rw
• ro
• no_root_squash
• async
• sync
• no_subtree_check
• And more...

I have no idea what most of these mean or what they do. Is there a complete reference that exists out there? Or can you just find this in a buried help file?

Awesome work for the howto, BTW - came in very useful.
Should be worthy of mention that NTFS-formatted drives cannot be shared through NFS. I am currently working on changing my drive's format, since I have a whopping 500Gb that I would not be able to access.

As well, would be interesting to find out how BOTH Samba AND NFS can coexist? I'm fairly new at doing this on Ubuntu because I have a Windows background, but I would love to find a howto for both.
Thanks again, great work!

PS just found a LOT of helpful info here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpNFSHowTo. This actually helped me get it working for the first time! Might be worth putting up into the Howto!

[DaveinSpain]

Thanks for a wonderfully easy tutorial. Everything worked fine right up to

sudo mount server.mydomain.com:/files /files

I have 2 computers, hostnames LANDING and DOWNSTAIRS, both connected via fast ethernet switch to my DHCP modem which gives Internet access to both machines via a wired LAN without any problems.

DOWNSTAIRS having been set up as the server as per tutorial, after creating /files on LANDING I entered

sudo mount DOWNSTAIRS:/Shared /files

Shared being a shared folder on each machine.

This produced "Can't get address for DOWNSTAIRS

Did

sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-common restart

Sames result.

This didn't really surprise me as in over a year I have never yet managed to get these two machines to see each other in linux. (******* does it without missing a step so I know it can be done)

Having had much advice from many forums, the problem appears to be that I do not appear to have a private IP address for either machine. I found one of 192.168.1.3 in the Windows configuration (same on both machines) but that appears to be my access to my ISP (either that or Vista and XP are using a Debian Apache server!). Both machines only have the 1 network interface (eth0) and ifconfig just shows the information for that (public IP address) and lo.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance to all who reply.

Dave

Just thought I'd add the contents of /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 DOWNSTAIRS

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 LANDING

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts