Sharing Files in a LAN using NFS 🔼

Workflow short description 🔼

We assume a Lan in a home. In the simplest casewe want a pc acting as a file server to share a folder of files to other pcs that acting as client can access the shared folder.

We assume statip IPs for the server and the client.

Care must be taken for the case that the nfs server is not operational or \ nor accessible. Then various applications in the client could have issues.

Contributions 🔼

Ideas to use autofs,leased ips :

Workflow sheet 🔼

The workflow sheet ideally would be printed by the sysadmin and be used as a placeholder of crucial info and as a reminder of workflow steps.

data value notes
NFS Server IP x.x.x.x  
NFS Client IP x.x.x.x  
/etc/exports location in filesystem  

The file /etc/exports @ contains a table of local physical file systems on an NFS server that are accessible to NFS clients. The contents of the file are maintained by the server's system administrator.

About NFS 🔼

Using fstab 🔼

Preconditions 🔼

ip addresses 🔼

Server and client must have an IP. ( Setting up networking? )

We assume that both the NFS server and the NFS client have static ips.

To find the IPs of the server and the client we use :

$ sudo ifconfig 
or
$ sudo ip addr show

Test basic connectivity with ping: 

(client) $ ping <nfs-server-ip>
(server) $ ping <nfs-client-ip>

Server 🔼

[server] $ sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common

define export folder in server 🔼

 $ man 5 exports  

  ref : man7.org  

 [server] $ sudo nano /etc/exports
 ...
 /home/chomwitt/NFSServerExport     192.168.1.41(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
 ... 
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^               ^^^^^^^^^^^
               |                         |
               |                ip of the client 
      pathdir we want to make 
     available to the client

fix user permissions 🔼

I am not sure that this section is necessary.,

It's very possible that the above export wont work due to user accounts on the server and client with the same name having different uid:

 
[server]$ id
uid=1000(chomwitt) gid=1000(chomwitt) groups=1000(chomwitt)
[client]$ id
uid=1001(chomwitt) gid=1001(chomwitt) groups=1001(chomwitt)

 .
And following that solution the :
[server] sudo nano /etc/exports changes to:
....
/home/chomwitt/NFSServerSHARE    192.168.1.41(rw,all_squash,anonuid=1000,anongid=1000,sync,no_subtree_check)
....  &nbsp;                                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

restarting nfs server 🔼

with sysvinit 🔼
 
 [server] $ /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
with runit 🔼

Client 🔼

 
$ sudo apt install nfs-common

verify that that nfs server's shares are accessible 🔼

showmount is an utility in the nfs-common package:

 
$ dpkg -S  showmount
nfs-common: /sbin/showmount

We can use showmount to query a remote NFS server about it's state.

 
 $ sudo showmount -e <NFS-SERVER IP>

set access to the nfs server 🔼

 
[client] $ mkdir ~/NFSImport
 [client] $ sudo mount <nfs_srv_ip>:/path/to/dir  /home/foouser/NFSImport/

Using autofs 🔼

 /etc/init.d/autofs start ------------>  /etc/auto.master 
           \                      |
            \               (find mount points)
         \_________           /
                       \         /
                        ---------
                |
                       create an automount thread
               for each mount point