NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NFS
Configuring and Administering an NFS Client
Chapter 2 49
devs
or nodevs
(default: devs)
Specify devs if you are mounting device files from
a server whose device files will work correctly on
the client. The devs option allows you to use
NFS-mounted device files to read and write to
devices from the NFS client. It is useful for
maintaining a standard, centralized set of device
files, if all your systems are configured similarly.
Specify nodevs if device files mounted from a
server will not work correctly for reading and
writing to devices on the NFS client. The nodevs
option generates an error if a process on the NFS
client tries to read or write to an NFS-mounted
device file.
timeo=n
(default=7)
The timeout, in tenths of a second, for NFS
requests (read and write requests to mounted
directories). If an NFS request times out, this
timeout value is doubled, and the request is
retransmitted. After the NFS request has been
retransmitted the number of times specified by
the retrans option (see below), a soft mount
returns an error, and a hard mount retries the
request. The maximum timeo value is 30 (3
seconds).
Try doubling the timeo value if you see several
server not responding messages within a few
minutes. This can happen because you are
mounting directories across a gateway, because
your server is slow, or because your network is
busy with heavy traffic.
Table 2-2 NFS Mount Options (Continued)