Installation guide

Chapter 10. Network File System (NFS)

becomes available. since UDP is connectionless, the client continues to pound the network with

data until the server re-establishes a connection.

The main disadvantage with TCP is that there is a very small performance hit due to the overhead

associated with the protocol.

10.10. References

Administering an NFS server can be a challenge. Many options, including quite a few not mentioned

in this chapter, are available for exporting or mounting NFS shares. Consult the following sources for

more information.

Installed Documentation

• /usr/share/doc/nfs-utils-version/ — This directory contains a wealth of information

about the NFS implementation for Linux, including a look at various NFS configurations and their

impact on file transfer performance.

• man mount — Contains a comprehensive look at mount options for both NFS server and client

configurations.

• man fstab — Gives details for the format of the /etc/fstab file used to mount file systems at

boot-time.

• man nfs — Provides details on NFS-specific file system export and mount options.

• man exports — Shows common options used in the /etc/exports file when exporting NFS file

systems.

Useful Websites

• http://nfs.sourceforge.net/ — The home of the Linux NFS project and a great place for project status

updates.

• http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/linux/ — An NFSv4 for Linux 2.6 kernel resource.

• http://www.nfsv4.org

— The home of NFS version 4 and all related standards.

• http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/NFSv4/NFSv4-no-rpcsec.html — Describes the details of NFSv4

with Fedora Core 2, which includes the 2.6 kernel.

• http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane2000/papers/pawlowski.pdf — An excellent whitepaper on the

features and enhancements of the NFS Version 4 protocol.

• http://wiki.autofs.net — The Autofs wiki, discussions, documentation and enhancements.

Related Books

• Managing NFS and NIS by Hal Stern, Mike Eisler, and Ricardo Labiaga; O'Reilly & Associates —

Makes an excellent reference guide for the many different NFS export and mount options available.

• NFS Illustrated by Brent Callaghan; Addison-Wesley Publishing Company — Provides comparisons

of NFS to other network file systems and shows, in detail, how NFS communication occurs.