NFS Services Administrator's Guide (762805-001, March 2014)

Table 5 NFS Session versus WebNFS Session (continued)
How WebNFS works across WANsHow NFS works across LANs
client must issue a request for a file handle corresponding
to the requested path.
Figure 3 shows a sample WebNFS session.
Figure 3 WebNFS Session
Figure 3 depicts the following steps:
1. An NFS client uses a LOOKUP request with a PUBLIC file handle to access the foo/
index.html file. The NFS client bypasses the portmapper service and contacts the server
on port 2049 (the default port).
2. The NFS server responds with the file handle for the foo/index.html file.
3. The NFS client sends a READ request to the server.
4. The NFS server responds with the data.
Removing the additional overhead of the PORTMAP and MOUNT protocols reduces the binding
time between the client and the server. The WebNFS protocol reduces the number of over-the-wire
requests and makes traversing firewalls easier.
WebNFS offers no support for locking files across mounted filesystems. Hence, multiple clients
cannot synchronize their locking calls across WebNFS mounted filesystems.
To access the shared directory across a firewall using the WebNFS feature, configure the firewall
to allow connections to the port number used by the nfsd daemon. By default the nfsd daemon
uses port 2049.
Configure the firewall based on the port number configured.
Configuring an NFS server for use by a PC NFS client
PC NFS is a protocol designed to perform the following functions:
• Allow PC users who do not have UNIX style credentials to authenticate to a UNIX account
• Perform print spooling from a PC on to a UNIX server
Once a PC client has successfully authenticated itself on the NFS server, the PC uses the MOUNT
and NFS protocols to mount the filesystem and to read and write to a file.
You may want to create the /etc/pcnfsd.conf file for the following reasons:
• If the PC NFS client software assigns user IDs smaller than 101 or greater than 60002, you
can set the uidrange in the /etc/pcnfsd.conf file to allow access to a different range
of user IDs, as in the following example:
uidrange 80-60005
• You want to provide PC users a different set of default print options. For example, add an
entry to the /etc/pcnfsd.conf file which defines raw as a default print option for PC users
submitting jobs to the printer lj3_2 as follows:
printer lj3_2 lj3_2 lp -dlj3_2 -oraw
32 Configuring and administering NFS services