NFSv3 is a tried and tested method of allowing client servers to access files over a network, in a very similar fashion to how the files would be accessed on a local file system. As a very mature piece of software, it has been successfully developed and used on production environments for almost 20 years, and it is still widely accepted and supported with a long life ahead of it. Some could make the argument that NFSv4.1 is faster now with pNFS that is now available, but I personally still prefer NFSv3 on many environments.
Setting it up is pretty easy and straight forward. As this is a network file system, it is strongly recommended to setup a private switch or private network between to the servers to ensure the lowest latency, as well as better security.
NFS Server – Installation
Install the required packages on the NFS server:
# Ubuntu and Debian [root@nfs01 ~]# apt-get update [root@nfs01 ~]# apt-get install rpcbind nfs-common nfs-kernel-server
NFS Server – Configuration
Out of the box, NFSv3 has the following options set which is getting outdated sorely at this time:
– Sets random ephemeral ports upon daemon startup.
– Enables only 8 NFS threads
To make things more easier for admin’s to lock down the firewalls, we are going to set static ports, and also enable 64 NFS threads since you will most likely run into IO problems before you hit this limit as it was meant for much older systems.
Stop the services so we can unload the lockd kernel module and configure static ports. This step cannot be skipped!
# Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 service nfs-kernel-server stop service statd stop service idmapd stop service rpcbind stop service portmap stop modprobe -r nfsd nfs lockd # Debian 7 service nfs-kernel-server stop service nfs-common stop service rpcbind stop modprobe -r nfsd nfs lockd
Configure STATD and define the static ports:
# Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 echo "manual" > /etc/init/idmapd.override vim /etc/default/nfs-common NEED_STATD=yes STATDOPTS="-p 662 -o 2020" NEED_GSSD=no # Debian 7 vim /etc/default/nfs-common NEED_STATD=yes STATDOPTS="-p 662 -o 2020" NEED_IDMAPD=no NEED_GSSD=no
Set the static port for LOCKD:
echo "options lockd nlm_udpport=32769 nlm_tcpport=32803" > /etc/modprobe.d/nfs-lockd.conf
Finally, update the NFS thread count by:
vim /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server ... RPCNFSDCOUNT=64 RPCNFSDPRIORITY=0 RPCMOUNTDOPTS="--manage-gids -p 892" NEED_SVCGSSD=no RPCSVCGSSDOPTS= ...
Open the firewall to allow your private network access to the NFS services. You may have to adjust your rules as my private network resides on eth2. Do not allow this on the public interface without adjusting the source IP’s accordingly!
[root@nfs01 ~]# ufw allow in on eth2 to 192.168.1.0/24 proto tcp [root@nfs01 ~]# ufw allow in on eth2 to 192.168.1.0/24 proto udp
Export the directory to be shared, along with its permissions, in /etc/exports:
[root@nfs01 ~]# vim /etc/exports /data 192.168.1.0/24(rw,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)
Now start the services, and ensure they will start at boot time:
# Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 service rpcbind start service statd start service nfs-kernel-server start; update-rc.d nfs-kernel-server enable # Debian 7 service rpcbind start; insserv rpcbind service nfs-common start; insserv nfs-common service nfs-kernel-server start; insserv nfs-kernel-server
Check to make sure the services are running:
[root@nfs01 ~]# showmount -e
Export list for nfs01.domain.com:
/data 192.168.1.0/24
[root@nfs01 ~]# rpcinfo -p
program vers proto port service
100000 4 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 3 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 4 udp 111 portmapper
100000 3 udp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100024 1 udp 662 status
100024 1 tcp 662 status
100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 3 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 4 tcp 2049 nfs
100227 2 tcp 2049
100227 3 tcp 2049
100003 2 udp 2049 nfs
100003 3 udp 2049 nfs
100003 4 udp 2049 nfs
100227 2 udp 2049
100227 3 udp 2049
100021 1 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 3 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 4 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 1 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100021 3 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100021 4 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100005 1 udp 892 mountd
100005 1 tcp 892 mountd
100005 2 udp 892 mountd
100005 2 tcp 892 mountd
100005 3 udp 892 mountd
100005 3 tcp 892 mountd
NFS Client – Installation
Now that the NFS server is ready, the NFS clients now need to be setup to connect. Install the required packages on the NFS clients by:
# Ubuntu or Debian [root@web01 ~]# apt-get update [root@web01 ~]# apt-get install rpcbind nfs-common
Now start the services:
# Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 service rpcbind start service statd start service idmapd stop echo "manual" > /etc/init/idmapd.override # Debian 7 service rpcbind start; insserv rpcbind service nfs-common start; insserv nfs-common insserv mountnfs.sh
NFS Client – Configuration
Confirm the NFS clients can see the NFS server:
[root@web01 ~]# showmount -e 192.168.1.1
Export list for 192.168.1.1:
/var/www/vhosts 192.168.1.0/24
[root@web01 ~]# rpcinfo -p 192.168.1.1
program vers proto port service
100000 4 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 3 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 4 udp 111 portmapper
100000 3 udp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100024 1 udp 662 status
100024 1 tcp 662 status
100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 3 tcp 2049 nfs
100003 4 tcp 2049 nfs
100227 2 tcp 2049
100227 3 tcp 2049
100003 2 udp 2049 nfs
100003 3 udp 2049 nfs
100003 4 udp 2049 nfs
100227 2 udp 2049
100227 3 udp 2049
100021 1 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 3 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 4 udp 32769 nlockmgr
100021 1 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100021 3 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100021 4 tcp 32803 nlockmgr
100005 1 udp 892 mountd
100005 1 tcp 892 mountd
100005 2 udp 892 mountd
100005 2 tcp 892 mountd
100005 3 udp 892 mountd
100005 3 tcp 892 mountd
Configure the mount point in /etc/fstab:
[root@web01 ~]# vim /etc/fstab 192.168.1.1:/data /data nfs vers=3,proto=tcp,hard,intr,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,noatime 0 0
Now create the placeholder directory on the client, mount, and verify it works:
[root@web01 ~]# mkdir /data [root@web01 ~]# mount -a [root@web01 ~]# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 20G 1.2G 18G 7% / none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup udev 484M 8.0K 484M 1% /dev tmpfs 99M 404K 99M 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 495M 0 495M 0% /run/shm none 100M 0 100M 0% /run/user 192.168.13.1:/data 20G 1.2G 18G 7% /data [root@web01 ~]# [root@web01 ~]# grep /data /proc/mounts 192.168.1.1:/data /data nfs rw,noatime,vers=3,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,namlen=255,hard,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=192.168.1.1,mountvers=3,mountport=892,mountproto=tcp,local_lock=none,addr=192.168.1.1 0 0 [root@web01 ~]# [root@web01 ~]# touch /data/test-file [root@web01 ~]# ls -al /data/test-file -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 20 01:45 /data/test-file