NFS Server Configuration Tool

Tammy Fox

tfox@redhat.com


Table of Contents
Configuration
Hostname Formats
Submitting Bugs

Network File System (NFS) is a way to share files between machines on a network as if the files were located on the client's local hard drive. Red Hat Linux can be both an NFS server and an NFS client, which means that it can export file systems to other systems and mount file systems exported from other machines.

Sharing files from an NFS server is known as exporting the directories. The NFS Server Configuration Tool can be used to configure a system as an NFS server.

To use the NFS Server Configuration Tool, you must by running the X Window System, have root privileges, and have the redhat-config-nfs RPM package installed. To start the application, select Main Menu Button (on the Panel) => System Settings => Server Settings => NFS Server, or type the command redhat-config-nfs.

Figure 1. NFS Server Configuration Tool

Configuration

To add an NFS share, click the Add button. The dialog box shown in Figure 2 will appear.

The Basic tab requires the following information:

Figure 2. Add Share

The General Options tab allows the following options to be configured:

The User Access tab allows the following options to be configured:

To edit an existing NFS share, select the share from the list, and click the Properties button. To delete an existing NFS share, select the share from the list, and click the Delete button.

After clicking OK to add, edit, or delete an NFS share from the list, the changes take place immediately — the server daemon is restarted, and the old configuration file is saved as /etc/exports.bak. The new configuration is written to /etc/exports.

The NFS Server Configuration Tool reads and writes directly to the /etc/exports configuration file. Thus, the file can be modified manually after using the tool, and the tool can be used after modifying the file manually (provided the file was modified with correct syntax).