How to configure NFS server in Linux

Network File System (NFS) is used to transfer data within multiple Linux systems.

These are the steps you need to follow to configure NFS server in RedHat and CentOS operating system

Prerequisites

Check if the required packages are installed

# rpm -qa | grep nfs  
nfs-utils-1.2.3-15.el6.i686  
nfs-utils-lib-1.1.5-4.el6.i686  
nfs4-acl-tools-0.3.3-5.el6.i686  
In Red Hat 5 or CentOS 5  

# rpm -qa | grep portmap  
portmap-4.0-65.2.2.1

In Redhat 6 or CentOS 6

# rpm -qa | grep rpcbind  
rpcbind-0.2.0-8.el6.i686  

If the packages are missing you can install them using yum

# yum -y install nfs  
# vi /etc/exports  
/NFS 10.10.10.0/24(no_root_squash,sync,rw)
/NFS  ==>  shared directory

10.10.10.0/24  ==>  range of allowed IP no_root_squash  ==>  by default the NFS is mounted as nobody user with limited permission but using this option you will allow clients to mount with root privilege. sync  ==>  by default async behavior is used by NFS, sync is used as it moves the data to a stable storage as soon as the NFS is mounted to reduce data corruption chances. rw  ==>  read write privilege

Restart the NFS server services

# service nfs restart  
# service portmap restart

To update your exports file

# exportfs -a

To view your exports file

# exportfs -v

On the Client machine

(Make sure portmap service is running on the client machine)

# mount -t nfs 10.10.10.90:/NFS /mnt

Here 10.10.10.90 is my NFS server IP with the location of the shared directory which is to be mounted on /mnt