21.2. NFS Client Configuration
NFS shares are mounted on the client side using the
mount command. The format of the command is as follows:
mount -t <nfs-type> -o <options> <host>:</remote/export> </local/directory>
Replace <nfs-type> with either
nfs for NFSv2 or NFSv3 servers, or nfs4 for NFSv4 servers. Replace <options> with a comma separated list of options for the NFS file system (refer to Section 21.4, “Common NFS Mount Options” for details). Replace <host> with the remote host, </remote/export> with the remote directory being mounted, and </local/directory> with the local directory where the remote file system is to be mounted.
Refer to the
mount man page for more details.
If accessing an NFS share by manually issuing the
mount command, the file system must be remounted manually after the system is rebooted. Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers two methods for mounting remote file systems automatically at boot time: the /etc/fstab file or the autofs service.
21.2.1. Mounting NFS File Systems using /etc/fstab
An alternate way to mount an NFS share from another machine is to add a line to the
/etc/fstab file. The /etc/fstab file is referenced by the netfs service at boot time, so lines referencing NFS shares have the same effect as manually typing the mount command during the boot process. Each line in this file must state the hostname of the NFS server, the directory on the server being exported, and the directory on the local machine where the NFS share is to be mounted. You must be root to modify the /etc/fstab file.
The general syntax for a line in
/etc/fstab is as follows:
<server>:</remote/export> </local/directory> <nfs-type> <options> 0 0
Replace
<server> with the hostname, IP address, or fully qualified domain name of the server exporting the file system. Replace </remote/export> with the path to the exported directory, and </local/directory> with the local file system on which the exported directory is mounted. Replace <nfs-type> with either nfs for NFSv2 or NFSv3 servers, or nfs4 for NFSv4 servers. Finally, replace <options> with a comma separated list of options for the NFS file system (see Section 21.4, “Common NFS Mount Options” for details). Note that the mount point must exist before /etc/fstab is read, otherwise the mount fails.
The following is a sample
/etc/fstab line to mount an NFS export:
server:/usr/local/pub /pub nfs defaults 0 0
After adding this line to
/etc/fstab on the client system, type the command mount /pub at a shell prompt, and the mount point /pub is mounted from the server. The mount point /pub must exist on the client machine before this command can be executed.
For more information about the
/etc/fstab configuration file and its contents, refer to the fstab manual page.
