Linux : How to setup client/server NFS on SuSE

By | September 10, 2016

This post will cover the complete installation and setup of a NFS client and server on SuSE Linux. By default, the system include the NFS client but not the server.

First of all, make sure that NFS traffic is allowed if you are running any firewall on the client/server machine. You can achieve this through YaST :

YaST -> Security and Users -> Firewall

Then follow these steps to configure the server and client(s) :

1. On the machine from where the files are located and will act as “server”, install the server software :

yast2 -i nfs-kernel-server

(If you are installing offline or without repo, you will be required to insert the installation disk #1.)

2. Since we are using NFSv4, we want to configure idmapd which handle the user ID mapping across the systems (you do not have to match the user IDs anymore by default with NFSv4, just ensure that the user(s) exist on all systems) :

vi /etc/idmapd.conf

At the begining of the file, search for :

Domain = localhost

And change it to your “domain” (this usually match the domain or subdomain (FQDN) that cover your infrastructure) Example :

Domain = dev.itechlounge.net

3. Add the folders and host permissions to the exports (remote client machines that should be allowed to access each ressources) :

vi /etc/exports

Then add the IP adresses as followed :

/path/to/nfs        192.168.5.100(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

4. Restart the daemon :

/etc/init.d/idmapd restart

5. On the machine that will act as a “client”, configure idmapd with the same domain value you’ve set on the server at point #2 (make sure the same required users from the server system are created).

6. Restart nfs client :

/etc/init.d/nfs restart

7. Configure fstab :

vi /etc/fstab

And add the NFS mount points as followed :

192.168.5.10:/path/to/nfs            /path/to/nfs          nfs4     rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr

You should now be fine to mount the NFS resource, make sure the folder exist on the client computer and mount it :

mount /path/to/nfs