Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 19:50:02 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com> To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: docs/35098: [PATCH] Handbook NFS stuff Message-ID: <200202200350.g1K3o2D95303@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR docs/35098; it has been noted by GNATS.
From: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com>
To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@Freebsd.org
Cc:
Subject: Re: docs/35098: [PATCH] Handbook NFS stuff
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 22:49:29 -0500 (EST)
Please review this, it has alot of your ideas, but a few of my own
tossed in here. I did cover more ground than listed, and have yet
to touch the amd part, well, more than the first paragraph hehe
--
Tom (darklogik) Rhodes
diff -ru handbook.old/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml
--- handbook.old/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml Tue Feb 19 16:19:33 2002
+++ handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml Tue Feb 19 22:42:26 2002
@@ -648,6 +648,13 @@
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
+ <firstname>Tom</firstname>
+ <surname>Rhodes</surname>
+ <contrib>Reorganized and enhanced by </contrib>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
<firstname>Bill</firstname>
<surname>Swingle</surname>
<contrib>Written by </contrib>
@@ -658,44 +665,42 @@
<indexterm><primary>NFS</primary></indexterm>
<para>Among the many different file systems that FreeBSD supports is
- the Network File System or NFS. NFS allows you
- to share directories and files on one machine with others
- via the network they are attached to. Using NFS, users and
- programs can access files on remote systems as if they were local
- files.</para>
+ the Network File System also known as <acronym>NFS</acronym>.
+ <acronym>NFS</acronym> allows your system to share directories and files on
+ with others over the network. By using <acronym>NFS</acronym>, users and
+ programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files.</para>
- <para>NFS has several benefits:</para>
+ <para>Some of the benefits for using <acronym>NFS</acronym> are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>Local workstations do not need as much disk space because
+ <para>Local workstations use less disk space because
commonly used data can be stored on a single machine and still
- remain accessible to everyone on the network.</para>
+ remain accessible to others over the network.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>There is no need for users to have unique home directories
- on every machine on your network. Once they have an established
- directory that is available via NFS it can be accessed from
- anywhere.</para>
+ <para>There would be no need for users to have unique home directories
+ on every network machine. Once they have an established a home
+ directory that is available on an <acronym>NFS</acronym> filesystem,
+ it can be accessed from anywhere on the network.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Storage devices such as floppies and CDROM drives can be
- used by other machines on the network eliminating the need for
- extra hardware.</para>
+ <para>Storage devices such as floppy disks, CDROM drives, and ZIP drives
+ can be used by other machines on the network. This may elimininate the
+ need for every system to have a CDROM or ZIP drive, providing a more
+ cost effective solution.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<sect2>
- <title>How It Works</title>
+ <title>How <acronym>NFS</acronym> Works</title>
- <para>NFS is composed of two sides – a client side and a
- server side. Think of it as a want/have relationship. The client
- <emphasis>wants</emphasis> the data that the server side
- <emphasis>has</emphasis>. The server shares its data with the
- client. In order for this system to function properly a few
- processes have to be configured and running.</para>
+ <para><acronym>NFS</acronym> consists of at least two parts; a client and
+ a server. The client remotely accesses the data that is stored locally
+ on the server machine. In order for this to function properly a few
+ processes have to be configured and running:</para>
<para>The server has to be running the following daemons:</para>
<indexterm>
@@ -723,85 +728,73 @@
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>nfsd</entry>
- <entry>The NFS Daemon which services requests from NFS
- clients.</entry>
+ <entry>The <acronym>NFS</acronym> daemon which serves requests from
+ the <acronym>NFS</acronym> clients.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>mountd</entry>
- <entry>The NFS Mount Daemon which actually carries out
+ <entry>The <acronym>NFS</acronym> mount daemon which actually carries out
requests that &man.nfsd.8; passes on to it.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>portmap</entry>
- <entry> The <command>portmapper</command> daemon which
- allows NFS clients to find out which port the NFS server
- is using.</entry>
+ <entry> The <command>portmapper</command> daemon
+ allows <acronym>NFS</acronym> clients to find out which port the
+ <acronym>NFS</acronym> server is using.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
- <para>The client side only needs to run a single daemon:</para>
- <indexterm>
- <primary>NFS</primary>
- <secondary>client</secondary>
- </indexterm>
- <indexterm>
- <primary><application>nfsiod</application></primary>
- </indexterm>
-
- <informaltable frame="none">
- <tgroup cols="2">
- <tbody>
- <row>
- <entry>nfsiod</entry>
- <entry>The NFS async I/O Daemon which services requests
- from its NFS server.</entry>
- </row>
- </tbody>
- </tgroup>
- </informaltable>
+ <para>The client can also run a daemon, known as
+ <application>nfsiod</application>. The <application>nfsiod</application>
+ daemon services the requests from a <acronym>NFS</acronym> server. This,
+ is optional, and improves performance, but not really required for normal
+ and correct operation. See the &man.nfsiod.8; man page for more information.
+ </para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="configuring-nfs">
- <title>Configuring NFS</title>
+ <title>Configuring <acronym>NFS</acronym></title>
<indexterm>
<primary>NFS</primary>
<secondary>configuration</secondary>
</indexterm>
- <para>Luckily for us, on a FreeBSD system this setup is a snap. The
- processes that need to be running can all be run at boot time with
+ <para>On FreeBSD, the setup of <acronym>NFS</acronym> is a relatively straightforward
+ process. The processes that need to be running can all be run at boot time with
a few modifications to your <filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>
file.</para>
- <para>On the NFS server make sure you have:</para>
+ <para>On the <acronym>NFS</acronym> server, make sure that the following options
+ in the <filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename> file:</para>
<programlisting>portmap_enable="YES"
nfs_server_enable="YES"
nfs_server_flags="-u -t -n 4"
mountd_flags="-r"</programlisting>
- <para><command>mountd</command> is automatically run whenever the
- NFS server is enabled. The <option>-u</option> and
- <option>-t</option> flags to <command>nfsd</command> tell it to
+ <para><command>mountd</command> runs automatically whenever the
+ <acronym>NFS</acronym> server is enabled. The <option>-u</option> and
+ <option>-t</option> flags tell <command>nfsd</command> to
serve UDP and TCP clients. The <option>-n 4</option> flag tells
<command>nfsd</command> to start 4 copies of itself.</para>
- <para>On the client, make sure you have:</para>
+ <para>On the client, make sure these options are present in the
+ <filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename> file:</para>
<programlisting>nfs_client_enable="YES"
nfs_client_flags="-n 4"</programlisting>
- <para>Like <command>nfsd</command>, the <option>-n 4</option> tells
+ <para>Like with <command>nfsd</command>, the <option>-n 4</option> tells
<command>nfsiod</command> to start 4 copies of itself.</para>
- <para>The last configuration step requires that you create a file
- called <filename>/etc/exports</filename>. The exports file
- specifies which file systems on your server will be shared
- (a.k.a., <quote>exported</quote>) and with what clients they will
- be shared. Each line in the file specifies a file system to be
- shared. There are a handful of options that can be used in this
+ <para>The <acronym>NFS</acronym> configuration requires that a file
+ called <filename>/etc/exports</filename> exsists. The exports file
+ specifies which file systems on your server will be exported
+ or <quote>shared</quote> and with what clients they will
+ exported too. Each line in the file specifies a file system to be
+ exported. There are many options that can be used in this
file but only a few will be mentioned here. You can find out
about the rest in the &man.exports.5; manual page.</para>
@@ -810,54 +803,57 @@
<indexterm>
<primary>NFS</primary>
- <secondary>exporting filesystems</secondary>
+ <secondary>examples of exporting filesystems</secondary>
</indexterm>
- <para>The following line exports <filename>/cdrom</filename> to
- three silly machines that have the same domain name as the server
+ <para>In the following examples, an idea of how to export filesystems
+ is displayed, although the settings may be different depending on
+ environment and network setup.
+ The following line exports <filename>/cdrom</filename> to
+ three example machines that have the same domain name as the server
(hence the lack of a domain name for each) or have entries in your
<filename>/etc/hosts</filename> file. The <option>-ro</option>
- flag makes the shared file system read-only. With this flag, the
- remote system will not be able to make any changes to the
- shared file system.</para>
+ flag makes the exported file system read-only. With this flag, the
+ remote system will not be able to write any changes to the
+ exported file system.</para>
- <programlisting>/cdrom -ro moe larry curly</programlisting>
+ <programlisting>/cdrom -ro example1 example2 example3</programlisting>
<para>The following line exports <filename>/home</filename> to three
hosts by IP address. This is a useful setup if you have a
- private network but do not have DNS running. The
- <option>-alldirs</option> flag allows all the directories below
+ private network but do not have a <acronym>DNS</acronym> server configured. The
+ <option>-alldirs</option> flag allows for all of the directories below
the specified file system to be exported as well.</para>
<programlisting>/home -alldirs 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.3 10.0.0.4</programlisting>
- <para>The following line exports <filename>/a</filename> to two
- machines that have different domain names than the server. The
- <option>-maproot=0</option> flag allows
- the root user on the remote system to write to the shared
- file system as root. Without the -maproot=0 flag even if
- someone has root access on the remote system they will not
- be able to modify files on the shared file system.</para>
+ <para>The following line exports <filename>/a</filename> so that two
+ machines with different domain names may access the server. The
+ <option>-maproot=0</option> flag allows the <username>root</username>
+ user on the remote system to write data on the exported file system as
+ <username>root</username>. Without the -maproot=0 flag, even if
+ someone has <username>root</username> access on the remote system they will not
+ be able to modify files on the exported file system.</para>
- <programlisting>/a -maproot=0 host.domain.com box.example.com</programlisting>
+ <programlisting>/a -maproot=0 host.example.com box.example2.com</programlisting>
- <para>In order for a client to access- an exported file system it must
- have permission to do so. Make sure your client is listed in your
+ <para>In order for a client to access an exported file system, the client must
+ have permission to do so. Make sure the client is listed in your
<filename>/etc/exports</filename> file.</para>
- <para>In <filename>/etc/exports</filename>, each line represents
+ <para>In the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file, each line represents
the export information for one filesystem to one host. A
- remote host can only be specified once for each local
- filesystem, and you can only have one default entry per local
+ remote host can only be specified once per
+ filesystem, and may only have one default entry for each
filesystem. For example, let's assume that
<filename>/usr</filename> is a single filesystem. The
- following <filename>/etc/exports</filename> is invalid:</para>
+ following <filename>/etc/exports</filename> would be invalid:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/src client
/usr/ports client</programlisting>
<para>One filesystem, <filename>/usr</filename>, has two lines
- specifying its exports to the same host,
- <hostid>client</hostid>. The correct format is:</para>
+ specifying its exports to the same host, <hostid>client</hostid>.
+ The correct format for this situation is:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/src /usr/ports client</programlisting>
@@ -874,39 +870,39 @@
# client01 has root privileges on it
/usr/src /usr/ports -maproot=0 client01
/usr/src /usr/ports client02
-# The "client" machines have root and can mount anywhere
-# up /exports. Anyone inhe world can mount /exports/obj read-only
+# The client machines have root and can mount anywhere
+# on /exports. Anyone in the world can mount /exports/obj read-only
/exports -alldirs -maproot=0 client01 client02
/exports/obj -ro</programlisting>
- <para>You must restart
- <command>mountd</command> whenever you modify
- <filename>/etc/exports</filename> to make changes take
- effect. This can be accomplished by sending the hangup signal
+ <para>You must restart <command>mountd</command> whenever you modify
+ <filename>/etc/exports</filename> to make the changes current.
+ This can be accomplished by either sending the hangup signal
to the <command>mountd</command> process:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>kill -HUP `cat /var/run/mountd.pid`</userinput></screen>
- <para>Now that you have made all these changes you can just reboot
- and let FreeBSD start everything for you at boot time, or you can
- run the following commands as root:</para>
+ <para>Or, a simple reboot should make FreeBSD set everything up
+ for you. Although, a reboot is not nessissary
+ the following commands, run as <username>root</username> of course,
+ could start everything up also.</para>
- <para>On the NFS server:</para>
+ <para>On the <acronym>NFS</acronym> server:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>portmap</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>nfsd -u -t -n 4</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>mountd -r</userinput></screen>
- <para>On the NFS client:</para>
+ <para>On the <acronym>NFS</acronym> client:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>nfsiod -n 4</userinput></screen>
- <para>Now you should be ready to actually mount a remote file
+ <para>Now everything should be ready to actually mount a remote file
system. This can be done one of two ways. In these examples the
server's name will be <literal>server</literal> and the client's
name will be <literal>client</literal>. If you just want to
- temporarily mount a remote file system or just want to test out
- your configuration you can run a command like this as root on the
+ temporarily mount a remote file system or just want to test the
+ configuration, just run a command like this as <username>root</username> on the
client:</para>
<indexterm>
<primary>NFS</primary>
@@ -916,56 +912,56 @@
<para>This will mount the <filename>/home</filename> directory
on the server at <filename>/mnt</filename> on the client. If
- everything is setup correctly you should be able to go into
- /mnt on the client and see all the files that are on the
+ everything is setup correctly you should be able to enter
+ <filename>/mnt</filename> on the client and see all the files that are on the
server.</para>
<para>If you want to automatically mount a remote file system
- each time the computer boots, add the filesystem to
- <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. Here is an example:</para>
+ each time the computer boots, add the filesystem to the
+ <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file. Here is an example:</para>
<programlisting>server:/home /mnt nfs rw 0 0</programlisting>
- <para>Read the &man.fstab.5; manual page for more options.</para>
+ <para>The &man.fstab.5; manual page will show many more options that are available.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Practical Uses</title>
- <para>There are many very cool uses for NFS. Some of the more common
- ones are listed below.</para>
+ <para>There are many practical uses for <acronym>NFS</acronym>. Some of the
+ more common ones are listed below:</para>
+
+ <note><para>The following practicle <acronym>NFS</acronym> examples require
+ the proper <acronym>NFS</acronym> configuration before actual use.</para>
+ </note>
+
<indexterm>
<primary>NFS</primary>
<secondary>uses</secondary>
</indexterm>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>Have several machines on a network and share a CDROM or
- floppy drive among them. This is cheaper and often more
- convenient.</para>
+ <para>Setup several machines on a network to share a CDROM or
+ floppy drive among them. This is cheaper and often more convenient.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>With so many machines on a network, it gets old having your
- personal files strewn all over the place. You can have a
- central NFS server that houses all user home directories and
- shares them with the rest of the machines on the LAN, so no
- matter where you log in you will have the same home
- directory.</para>
+ <para>With so many machines on a network, you can have a
+ central <acronym>NFS</acronym> server store the user home directories and
+ export them with the rest of the machines on the network, this way
+ users can have the same home directory, regardless of which workstation
+ they log in to.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>When you get to reinstalling FreeBSD on one of your
- machines, NFS is the way to go! Just pop your distribution
- CDROM into your file server and away you go!</para>
+ <para>You can use one CDROM on the <acronym>NFS</acronym> server to install
+ FreeBSD over the network on multiple machines.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Have a common <filename>/usr/ports/distfiles</filename>
- directory that all your machines share. That way, when you go
- to install a port that you have already installed on a different
- machine, you do not have to download the source all over
- again!</para>
+ <para>Several machines could have a common <filename>/usr/ports/distfiles</filename>
+ directory. That way, when you install a port on several machines, you can
+ quickly access the source without downloading it on each machine.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
@@ -992,14 +988,14 @@
<indexterm><primary>amd</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>automatic mounter daemon</primary></indexterm>
- <para>&man.amd.8;, which is also known as the automatic mounter
+ <para>&man.amd.8;, also known as the automatic mounter
daemon, is a useful utility used for automatically mounting a
remote filesystem whenever a file or directory within that
filesystem is accessed. Filesystems that are inactive for a
period of time will also be automatically unmounted by
<application>amd</application>. Using
<application>amd</application> provides a simplistic alternative
- to static mounts.</para>
+ to perminant mounts.</para>
<para><application>amd</application> operates by attaching
itself as an NFS server to the <filename>/host</filename> and
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