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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.

Related workflows:

• Networking?
• Setting up Home LAN?
• Setting up networking?

Contributions

Ideas to use autofs,leased ips :

• nfs client timeo option not working
• setting ip in devuan

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

About NFS

• wikipedia/NFS
• RFC 8881 – NFS Version 4.1 Protocol Specification

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

install related deb packages

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

define export folder in server

 $ man 5 exports     
  (ref -> [[man7.org -> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/exports.5.html]] 

 [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)
....                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

restarting nfs server

with sysvinit

 
 [server] $ /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

with runit

Client

install nfs related packages

 
$ 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