CONFIGURING NFS

Among the many different file systems that FreeBSD supports is the Network File System, also known as NFS. NFS allows a system to share directories and files with others over a network. By using NFS, users and programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files.

Some of the most notable benefits that NFS can provide are:

Local workstations use less disk space because commonly used data can be stored on a single machine and still remain accessible to others over the network.

There is no need for users to have separate home directories on every network machine. Home directories could be set up on the NFS server and made available throughout the network.

Storage devices such as floppy disks, CDROM drives, and Zip® drives can be used by other machines on the network. This may reduce the number of removable media drives throughout the network.

SERVER SIDE

1. UP the Network card
2. And edit the vi /etc/hosts [insert the server & client IP and hostname]
3. vi /etc/hostname.hme0
[insert the server & client IP and hostname]

STEP 1:

# vi /etc/dfs/dfstab
..
..
..
share -o ro /usr/share/man

:wq!

STEP 2:

[Note: Stop and start the NFS server daemons]

#/etc/init.d/nfs.server stop
#/etc/init.d/nfs.server start

STEP 3:
Verify the share dir:

# share
- /usr/share/man ro " "

# dfshares [it will display the current share name]

RESOURCE SERVER ACCESS TRANSPORT
server:/usr/share/man server - -

CLIENT SIDE

# mv /usr/share/man /usr/share/man.bak
Create a new man directory (/usr/share/man) to use as a mount point.

# cd /usr/share
# mkdir man
# mount server:/usr/share/man /usr/share/man
# man ls

[now man page will work, but in the client side we moved the man page as man.bak even though it will work this is because of the NFS ]

1. To verify the list of mounts in the client provide by server

Ans: # dfmounts server

RESOURCE SERVER PATHNAME CLIENTS
- server /usr/share/man client

2. To UNMOUNT

Ans: # umount /usr/share/man
# dfmounts server

output: No output


NOTE: TO CHANGE THE HOST NAME OF THE SERVER EDIT THE BELOW FILE

/etc/inet/hosts
/etc/nodename
/etc/hostname.hme0
/etc/net/ticlts/host
/etc/net/ticots/host
/etc/net/ticotsord/host
i.e. to rename the hostname