install nfs server and client in centOS

How to Install NFS Server & Client in CentOS

NFS (Network File System) is a distributed file system that allows you to share files & directories with others over a network. It allows remote users to access your files & folders as if they are mounted locally. In this article, we will look at how to install NFS Server and client on CentOS.


How to Install NFS Server & Client in CentOS

Here are the steps to setup NFS Server & Client in CentOS. Please note, for our example, we will be using the following IP addresses for NFS Server and client.

NFS Server IP: 54.34.13.14 
NFS Clients IPs: From the 54.16.3.0/24 range

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1. Install NFS Server

Open terminal and run the following command to install NFS server.

$ dnf install nfs-utils

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2. Enable & Start NFS Server

Run the following commands to enable & start NFS server.

$ systemctl start nfs-server.service 
$ systemctl enable nfs-server.service 
$ systemctl status nfs-server.service

The last command will display the status of NFS server and services.

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3. Create File System

We will create a test file system to export & share on NFS server.

$ mkdir -p  /mnt/nfs_shares/test 
$ mkdir  -p /mnt/backups 
$ ls -l /mnt/nfs_shares/

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4. Export directories

In order to export the above directories we need to add them to configuration file at /etc/exports .

$ sudo vi /etc/exports

Add the following lines to allow access from only clients in 54.16.3.0/24 IP range.

/mnt/nfs_shares/test   54.16.3.0/24(rw,sync) 
/mnt/backups 54.16.3.0/24(rw,sync,no_all_squash,root_squash) 

Let us look at the above configuration.

  • rw – allows read & write to these folders
  • sync – allows NFS to write operations when requested
  • no_all_squash – map GIDs and UIDs from client to identical ones on NFS server
  • root_squash – map requests from root user to UID/GID 0

Export the directory with the following command

$ exportfs -arv

In the above command, -a means export all, -r means reexport all directories, and -v means verbose output.

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5. Update Firewall

Finally, update firewall rules to allow NFS server to receive requests from remote clients, by adding following rules.

$ firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=nfs 
$ firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=rpc-bind 
$ firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=mountd
$ firewall-cmd --reload

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6. Setup NFS Clients

Open terminal on your client systems, and run the following commands to install NFS client.

$ dnf install nfs-utils nfs4-acl-tools         [On CentOS/RHEL] 
$ sudo apt install nfs-common nfs4-acl-tools   [On Debian/Ubuntu]

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7. List exported file system

Run the following command to list the exported folders on NFS server.

$ showmount -e 54.34.13.14

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8. Create Local Directory

Create local directory on NFS client to mount remote directories from NFS server. Mount them as ntf file.

$ mkdir -p /mnt/backups 
$ mount -t nfs  54.34.13.14:/mnt/backups /mnt/backups

Confirm it by running mount command with grep nfs

$ mount | grep nfs

You will see the mounted folder location in output.

Run the following command to add an entry in /etc/fstab file and create a persistent mount that works even after system reboot.

$ echo "54.34.13.14:/mnt/backups     /mnt/backups  nfs     defaults 0 0">>/etc/fstab

To unmount this file, run the following command from the NFS client.

$ umount /mnt/backups

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9. Test the setup

Finally, we create a file on server and check if it can be seen on the client. Run the following commands to do so.

$ touch /mnt/backups/file_created_on_server.text     [On NFS Server] 
$ ls -l /mnt/backups/file_created_on_server.text     [On NFS client]

Now we create a file on client and check if it can be seen on the server. Run the following commands to do so.

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$ touch /mnt/backups/file_created_on_client.text     [On NFS Client] 
$ ls -l /mnt/backups/file_created_on_client.text     [On NFS Server]

That’s it. NFS Server and client have been installed and configured in your system.

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