NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.02) January 2008

be shared by all the systems on the network, instead of duplicating common directories, such as
/usr/local on each system.
How NFS works
The NFS environment consists of the following components:
• NFS Services
• NFS Shared Filesystems
• NFS Servers and Clients
NFS Services
The NFS services is a collection of daemons and kernel components, and commands that enable
systems with different architectures running different operating systems to share filesystems
across a network. The physical location of the filesystem does not affect the NFS services. The
NFS services enable you to place a copy of the filesystem on an NFS server and allow all other
systems, or a subset of systems in the network to access it.
NFS Shared Filesystems
Filesystems that are shared between an NFS server and an NFS client across a network are known
as NFS filesystems. The shared filesystem can refer to an entire file hierarchy, or a single file.
NFS Servers and Clients
In the NFS context, a system that shares its filesystems over a network is known as a server, and
a system that mounts and accesses these shared filesystems is known as a client. The NFS service
enables a system to access a filesystem located on a remote system.
Once the filesystem is shared by a server, it can be accessed by a client. Clients access files on
the server by mounting the shared filesystem. For users, these mounted filesystems appear as a
part of the local filesystem.
New Features in NFS
This section discusses the new features that NFS supports on systems running HP-UX 11i v3.
NOTE: All versions of the NFS protocols are supported on HP-UX 11i v3. NFSv4 is not the
default protocol. However, it can be enabled. For information on how to enable NFSv4, see
“Configuring the NFSv4 Server Protocol Version ” (page 24).
NFS Version 4 Protocol (NFSv4)
NFSv4 is an IETF standard protocol that provides the following features:
• Single Protocol
In NFSv4, MOUNT, Network Lock Manager, and the ACL protocols are merged into the
NFS protocol. Merging all these protocols into a single protocol enables you to configure
firewalls easily. All NFSv4 requests are now sent to one port.
In earlier versions of NFS, separate protocols were required to mount a filesystem, monitor
a remote client or a server, lock or unlock a file, and unmount a filesystem. Configuring a
firewall to permit access to specific ports that the protocols listened on was difficult (or
impossible) if the client or the server was part of a firewalled network.
• COMPOUND Procedure
The COMPOUND procedure decreases transport and security overhead, because of fewer
over-the-wire trips between the client and the server. This feature is transparent to the user.
14 Introduction