NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Troubleshooting NFS Services
Common Problems with NFS
Chapter 5172
“Permission Denied” Message
❏ Check the mount options in the /etc/fstab file on the NFS client. A
directory you are attempting to write to may have been mounted as
read-only.
❏ Enter the ls -l command to check the HP-UX permissions on the
server directory and on the client directory that is the mount point.
You may not be allowed access to the directory.
❏ Enter the following command on the NFS server:
/usr/sbin/share
Or, enter the following command on the NFS client:
/usr/sbin/showmount -e server_name
Check the permissions on the shared directory. The directory may
have been shared as read-only to your client. The administrator of
the NFS server can use the remount mount option to mount the
directory read/write without unmounting it. See “Changing the
Default Mount Options” on page 51.
If you are logged in as root to the NFS client, check the share
permissions to determine whether root access to the directory is
granted to your NFS client.
❏ If you are logged in as root to the NFS client, and your client is not
allowed root access to the exported directory, check the passwd
database on the NFS server to determine whether it contains an
entry for user nobody. Without root access, the root user on an NFS
client is given the access permissions of an anonymous user. Also,
check whether anonymous users are denied access to the directory
(with the anon=65535 export option).
If your client is not allowed root access or anonymous user ID access
to the exported directory, log in as a non-root user to get access to the
directory.
❏ If you were attempting to run a program when you received the
“permission denied” message, enter the ls -l command on the
NFS server to check whether the program you tried to run has the
setuid bit set. If it does, check /etc/fstab to determine whether
the directory was mounted with the nosuid mount option. If
necessary, remove the nosuid option from the /etc/fstab file, then
unmount and remount the directory.