NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NFS Services
Configuring and Administering NFS Clients
Chapter 2 77
Enabling an NFS Client
To enable an NFS client, follow these steps:
1. In the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file, set the value of NFS_CLIENT
variable to 1, as follows:
NFS_CLIENT=1
2. Enter the following command to run the NFS client startup script:
/sbin/init.d/nfs.client start
The NFS client startup script starts the necessary NFS client daemons,
and mounts the remote directories configured in the /etc/fstab file.
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 a client 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.