NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.03) August 2008

Mounting Remote Directories
The mount command mounts a shared NFS directory from a remote system (NFS
server).
You can mount a filesystem using the following methods:
• Automatic Mounting at System Boot time
To set up a filesystem for automatic mounting at system boot time, you must
configure it in the /etc/fstab file. All filesystems specified in the /etc/fstab
file are mounted during system reboot.
• Manual Mounting
When you manually mount a filesystem, it is not persistent across reboots or when
NFS client restarts. If the NFS client is restarted or the system is rebooted, the
filesystem must be mounted again after the reboot. To mount filesystems manually,
you must run the mount command. For a list of mount options, see mount_nfs(1M).
Consider the following points before you mount a directory:
• Before you mount a remote directory on your system, you must configure the
remote system as an NFS server and share the directory.
• You must configure a local directory as the mount-point for the NFS filesystem.
HP recommends that the mount-point not contain files and directories. However,
if the local directory contains files and directories, they will be hidden and
inaccessible while the remote directory is mounted.
Mounting a Remote Directory on an NFS client
To mount a directory on an NFS client, select one of the following methods:
Automatic Mount
To configure a remote directory to be automatically mounted at system boot, follow
these steps:
1. Add an entry to the /etc/fstab file, for each remote directory you want to mount
on your system. Following is the syntax for the entry in the /etc/fstab file:
server:remote_directory local_directory nfs defaults 0 0
or
server:remote_directory local_directory nfs option[,option...] 0 0
2. Mount all the NFS file systems specified in the /etc/fstab file by entering the
following command:
/usr/sbin/mount -a -F nfs
3. Verify that your filesystem is mounted by entering the following command:
nfsstat -m
An output similar to the following output is displayed:
Configuring and Administering NFS Clients 51