Creating a simple NFS share on centos

In this post is noted a way of creating a simple NFS share server on centos 8 machine.

1. Installing NFS

On the server side we should install nfs-utils packet:

[root@nfs-server ~]# yum install nfs-utils

and start/enable nfs-server service

[root@nfs-server ~]# systemctl start nfs-server
[root@nfs-server ~]# ^start^enable
systemctl enable nfs-server
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nfs-server.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-server.service.
[root@nfs-server ~]# 

1. Create a necessary directory and set nobody as an owner. Additionally, enable SELinux boolean nfs_export_all_rw

mkdir /opt/myshare
[root@nfs-server opt]# chown nobody /opt/myshare
[root@nfs-server opt]# setsebool -P nfs_export_all_rw 1

1. Exporting the defined directory. Define prepared directory and subnets in /etc/exportfs file. Additionally, some options for exporting should be defined along with subnets too.

   [root@nfs-server ~]# vim /etc/exports
   /opt/myshare   192.168.11.0/24(rw,sync)
   

More options you can find in man exports. Some options are following:

• rw
• sync
• all_squash - Map all uids and gids from clients to the anonymous user.
• no_all_squash - used to map all UIDs and GIDs from client requests to identical UIDs and GIDs on the NFS server.
• root_squash – Map requests from uid/gid 0 to the anonymous uid/gid

1. Export the defined in /etc/exports directories:

   [root@nfs-server ~]# exportfs -arv
   exporting 192.168.11.0/24:/opt/myshare
   

Here -a means export all defined directories -r means reexport exported directories -v enable verbouse mode

1. To check an exported list use -s flag:

   [root@nfs-server ~]# exportfs -s
   /opt/myshare  192.168.11.0/24(sync,wdelay,hide,no_subtree_check,sec=sys,rw,secure,root_squash,no_all_squash)
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   

2. Enable NFS services in firewalld:

   [root@nfs-server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=nfs
   success
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   [root@nfs-server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=mountd
   success
   [root@nfs-server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=rpc-bind
   success
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   [root@nfs-server ~]# firewall-cmd --reload
   success
   [root@nfs-server ~]# 
   

3. Mount a share on the client. Create a folder on the client machine for mounting nfs folder and add a mouting details in the /etc/fstab:

   [root@workstation ~]# mkdir /opt/nfs-share
   [root@workstation ~]# vim /etc/fstab
   ......
   192.168.11.61:/opt/myshare /opt/nfs-share nfs defaults 0 0
   

4. And mount a share:

   mount -a
   

5. Check if it is mounted successfully:

   [root@workstation ~]# df -h
   .......
   192.168.11.61:/opt/myshare                45G  3.4G   42G   8% /opt/nfs-share
   

6. Moreover, you can mount a folder manually, without adding an entry in the /etc/fstab:

   mount -t nfs  192.168.11.61:/opt/myshare /opt/nfs-share
   

7. In order to check available shares on the remote server you can use a showmount command:

   [root@workstation ~]# showmount -e 192.168.11.61 ##This is a remote nfs server
   Export list for 192.168.11.61:
   /opt/myshare 192.168.11.0/24
   [root@workstation ~]#