NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Introduction
New Features in NFS
Chapter 1 21
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” on page 48.
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.
NFSv4 uses the COMPOUND RPC procedure to build sequence of
requests into a single RPC. All RPC requests are classified as either
NULL or COMPOUND. All requests that are part of the
COMPOUND procedure are known as operations. An operation is a
filesystem action that forms part of a COMPOUND procedure.
NFSv4 currently defines 38 operations.