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NFS

NFS (Network File Share) is a type of network attached storage that provides a way to serve a mountpoint over your network.

It's worth noting that NFS only shares to Linux machines. If you want a Windows-compatible network storage solution, check out Samba.

Setting up NFS

Install the NFS Utility

To set up an NFS share on Linux, first install the NFS server.

sudo apt-get install -y nfs-kernel-server
# Or, on RedHat-based systems
sudo dnf install nfs-utils

Enable and start the NFS server.

sudo systemctl enable --now nfs-server

Make or choose the directory you want to serve over NFS.

sudo mkdir -p /nfs/share1

Now, we need set up our NFS server to export the directory.
This will make it available to other machines over the NFS server.

Edit the /etc/exports file.

sudo vi /etc/exports
Add an entry to this file on its own line containing the absolute path to the directory you want to export, following the examples at the top of the file:
/nfs/share1  192.168.4.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

  • This will allow any IP in the range given in the CIDR address 192.168.4.0/24 to access this NFS share.
    This allows all IPs from 192.168.4.1 to 192.168.4.254.

  • If you want to specify a smaller range, you can create a smaller subnet.

    /nfs/share1  192.168.4.11/28(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
    This will allow IPs from 192.168.4.11 to 192.168.4.27.
    The higher the CIDR, the lower the number of available IPs.

  • You can also specify host-specific rules on the same line.

After saving the file with the new entry, use the exportfs command to load the new NFS config.

exportfs -rav

The share will now be accessible over the network.

NOTE: The default port for NFS is 2049. If you're running a firewall, either open the port or allow the service.

Mounting an NFS Share

From a client machine, you also need the NFS package in order to mount an NFS share.
Some distros have these by default.

sudo apt-get install -y nfs-common
# Or, on RedHat-based systems
sudo dnf install nfs-utils

With that package installed, you should be able to mount the NFS share.

sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.4.11:/nfs/share1 /mnt/share1

This will mount the remote NFS share to the local directory /mnt/share1

Auto Mounting NFS Shares with /etc/fstab

If you want to automount the NFS share, you can add an entry if /etc/fstab on the client.

sudo vi /etc/fstab

Add the line: 

192.168.4.11:/nfs/share1 /mnt/share1 nfs defaults 0 1

  • Instead of defaults, you can use soft. This will keep trying to mount the share, but it will not force the system to wait for it to be mounted.
    192.168.4.11:/nfs/share1 /mnt/share1 nfs soft 0 1
    If you have a hard wait, it can break bootup when the NFS server isn't available.

Replace the IP and directories with your host and the NFS directory location.

That's it.

Auto Mounting NFS Shares with Systemd

Use .mount and .automount files in order to use systemd to automount the NFS share.

Pay attention to your file names here.

In /etc/systemd/system/mnt-share1.mount: 

[Unit]
Description=Mounts NFS share 1
After=network.target

[Mount]
What=192.168.4.11:/nfs/share1
Where=/mnt/share1
Type=nfs
Options=default
TimeoutSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then, in /etc/systemd/system/mnt-share1.automount: 

[Unit]
Description=Auto mounts NFS share 1
After=network.target

[Automount]
Where=/mnt/share1
TimeoutIdleSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the automount service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now mnt-share1.automount

NOTE: Make sure your unit file names reflect the path of the mount point!

If you see an error in journalctl that says something like "Where= setting doesn't match unit name. Refusing.," your naming convention is wrong.

Systemd Mount File Name Convention

Your .mount and .automount files need to reflect the mount point path in their names.

Check what your mount/automount files should be called with the following command: 

systemd-escape -p --suffix=mount '/mnt/share1'

Plug your mount point into that string and it will show you what your service should be called.

Your file names should be the mount point path, separated by hyphens (-) rather than slashes.

So, from the example in this page:

  • Your mount point is /mnt/share1
  • Name the unit files mnt-share1.mount and mnt-share1.automount.

Likewise, if you were mounting at /home/you/nfs, name the unit files home-you-nfs.mount, same with the .automount.

Again, the systemd-escape command will properly escape your mount point and give you a systemd-compliant filename.

/etc/exports Entries

The /etc/exports file controls which directories are shared over NFS, and who can acess them.

Each line in /etc/exports defines a directory to share over NFS in the following format:

<directory> <client>(<options>) <client>(<options>)

  • The <directory> is the directory to serve over NFS.

  • The <client>(<options>) specifies which hosts to allow access to, and what permissions they should have on the NFS share.

  • You can specify multiple clients on the same line, with different permissions.

Client Formats

You can specify the <client> in a number of different ways.
Some of the most common <client> formats are:

  • 192.168.1.0/24: CIDR notation
    • This specifies the entire subnet 192.168.1.0 (host bits 1 through 254).
  • 192.168.1.11: Specific IPs
    • This specifies a single host to give access to the NFS share.
  • homelab: Specific hostname
    • This specifies a single host by name, if it's resolvable.
    • This entry should be in /etc/hosts to resolve properly.
  • *: Wildcard
    • This makes the NFS share available to any client.
    • Not recommended for security reasons.
  • @netgroup: NIS (Network Information Service) netgroup.
    • This is mostly used in enterprise setups.

Options

After you specify the client, you need to specify options in parentheses. 

DIR HOST(OPTIONS)

The OPTIONS can be used to specify the permissions for the specific HOST (or HOSTS), as well as how the NFS share will behave on the client.

Available options include:

  • rw: Read/write access.
  • ro: Read-only access.
  • sync The NFS server writes changes to the disk immediately before sending a success response to the client.
    • This is recommended for safety and data integrity.
  • async: Faster than sync but possible to lose data (e.g., system crash).
    • With async, the NFS server can cache write operations in memory and send a success response to the client before actually writing to the disk.
  • subtree_check: Ensures clients can only access the exported directory.
    • This is the default. Slower than no_subtree_check.
    • When you export a subdirectory (not a whole filesystem), NFS checks the full path to ensure the client is only accessing the exported directory.
    • Better than no_subtree_check for security, but slower.
  • no_subtree_check: Skips directory path checks.
    • This is usually the recommended approach, especially if you're exporting entire filesystem trees.
    • Faster than subtree_check, usually fine in most use cases.
  • no_root_squash: Allows root on the client to act as root on the NFS server.
    • This means root on the client will retain full root permissions on the NFS share.
    • This is dangerous. If the client gets compromised, the NFS share is compromised. Not recommended.
  • root_squash: Maps the client's root user to the nfsnobody user.
    • This is the safe approach.
    • nfsnobody is is a restricted, low-privilege user that usually can't write to most directories (unless you allow it).
  • all_squash: Maps all users to the nfsnobody user.
  • anonuid=UID: Specify an anonymous UID to use for squashed users.
  • anongid=UID: Specify an anonymous GID to use for squashed users.
    • This is the UID/GID that would be used instead of the nfsnobody user (UID/GID 65534 by default).
    • So, instead of using the nfsnobody user and group, you can specify a different user for sqash operations.

Reloading Exports

After changing the /etc/exports file, you need to reload the changes.

sudo exportfs -rav

  • -r: Reloads the exports.
    • This also syncs /var/lib/nfs/etab with /etc/exports, which updates the kernel export table.
  • -a: Exports/un-exports all entries in the /etc/exports file (apply to all).
  • -v: Verbose output.

The difference between -r and -a:

  • -r reloads all exports, and syncs /etc/exports with /var/lib/nfs/etab (the NFS kernel export table).
    • The -r is what actually forces the NFS server to update the kernel export table.
  • -a simply means "apply to all", which is useful when adding/removing entries.

NFS Share Ownership

The group owner of the share on the server can be used when setting the setguid bit on the directory.

This will ensure that any changes on the NFS share are still owned by the group.

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