Chapter 26. Sharing File Systems with NFS

Table of Contents

26.1. Importing File Systems with YaST
26.2. Importing File Systems Manually
26.3. Exporting File Systems with YaST
26.4. Exporting File Systems Manually

Abstract

As mentioned in Chapter 25, Using NIS, NFS works with NIS to make a network transparent to the user. With NFS, it is possible to distribute file systems over the network. It does not matter at which terminal users are logged in. They always find themselves in the same environment.

As with NIS, NFS is an asymmetric service. There are NFS servers and NFS clients. A machine can be both—it can supply file systems over the network (export) and mount file systems from other hosts (import). Generally, these are servers with a very large hard disk capacity, whose file systems are mounted by other clients.

[Important]Need for DNS

In principle, all exports can be made using IP addresses only. To avoid time-outs, however, you should have a working DNS system. This is necessary at least for logging purposes, because the mountd daemon does reverse lookups.

26.1. Importing File Systems with YaST

Users authorized to do so can mount NFS directories from an NFS server into their own file trees. This can be achieved most easily using the YaST module NFS Client. Just enter the hostname of the NFS server, the directory to import, and the mount point at which to mount this directory locally. All this is done after Add is clicked in the first dialog. See Figure 26.1, “NFS Client Configuration with YaST”.

Figure 26.1. NFS Client Configuration with YaST

NFS Client Configuration with YaST

SUSE LINUX Administration Guide 9.3