How to Install NFS Server on Linux Ubuntu 20.04 (Step by Step Tutorial)
How to Install NFS Server on Linux Ubuntu 20.04. NFS also called “Network File System” is a file sharing protocol developed by Sun’s Microsystems. It allows users to share files across the Local Area Network. It is very useful when you need to share common data to multiple clients. NFS provides a convenient way to access the remote storage over the network and mount them on the client system.
By default, the NFS protocol does not provide any user authentication or encryption. You can restrict the NFS access based on the client’s IP and hostname. NFS allows the client system to view, store and update files on the remote system.
Advantages of using NFS
- Simple and low cost solution for network file sharing.
- Easy to install and set up.
- Enables central administration and management of files.
- Reduces disk space requirements for clients.
In this post, we will show you how to install the NFS server on Ubuntu 20.04.
Install NFS Server on Linux Ubuntu
By default, the NFS server package is included in Ubuntu 20.04. You can install it by running the following command:
apt-get install nfs-kernel-server -y
After installing the NFS server, start the NFS service and enable it to start at system reboot:
systemctl start nfs-server
systemctl enable nfs-server
You can verify the status of the NFS service using the following command:
systemctl status nfs-server
Sample output:
● nfs-server.service - NFS server and services
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nfs-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Thu 2021-11-04 08:45:06 UTC; 5s ago
Main PID: 4198 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 0 (limit: 2353)
Memory: 0B
CGroup: /system.slice/nfs-server.service
Nov 04 08:45:05 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Starting NFS server and services...
Nov 04 08:45:06 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Finished NFS server and services.
Create a Shared Directory on NFS Server
Next, you will need to create a directory on the NFS serve that you want to share with the client systems. Let’s create a directory named /nfs_share using the following command:
mkdir /nfs_share
Next, assign proper ownership and permissions to the /nfs_share directory so it can be accessible from the client machines.
chown nobody:nogroup /nfs_share
chmod -R 777 /nfs_share
Configure an NFS Exports
After creating the NFS directory, you will need to allow client systems to access the NFS share. You can do it by editing the /etc/exports file.
nano /etc/exports
Add the following line:
/nfs_share 192.168.0.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
Save and close the file when you are finished. The above configuration will allow all clients in the 192.168.0.0 network to access the NFS share.
Where:
- rw – Assign read and write
- sync – Write changes to disk before applying them
- no_subtree_check – Avoid subtree checking
Next, run the following command to export the shared directory and make it available to all client systems.
export -a
systemctl restart nfs-server
Configure Firewall
If the UFW firewall is installed and configured on your server. Then, you will need to allow NFS service to the client network. You can allow it by running the following command:
ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port nfs
Next, reload the UFW firewall to apply the changes.
ufw reload
Install NFS Client
At this point, the NFS server is installed and configured. Now, you will need to install the NFS client package on the client system. You can install it by running the following command:
apt-get install nfs-common -y
Once the NFS client package is installed, you can proceed to the next step.
Mount NFS Share on Client System
First, you will need to create a directory on the client system on which you want to mount the NFS share from the server.
Let’s create a directory named client_share inside /opt directory:
mkdir /opt/client_share
Now, mount the NFS share directory to the client directory using the following command:
mount -t nfs -o nfsvers=3 192.168.0.100:/nfs_share /opt/client_share
Where: 192.168.0.100 is the IP address of the NFS server.
Next, verify that the NFS share directory is mounted using the following command:
df -h
You should see your mounted share in the last line of the following output:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 981M 0 981M 0% /dev
tmpfs 199M 588K 199M 1% /run
/dev/sda1 50G 1.8G 46G 4% /
tmpfs 994M 0 994M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 994M 0 994M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 199M 0 199M 0% /run/user/0
192.168.0.100:/nfs_share 50G 2.0G 46G 5% /opt/client_share
The above command will mount the remote NFS share temporarily. To make the mounts permanent on reboot, open the /etc/fstab file:
nano /etc/fstab
Add the following lines:
192.168.0.100:/nfs_share /opt/client_share nfs defaults,timeo=900,retrans=5,_netdev 0 0
Save and close the file then run the following command to apply the changes:
mount -a
Verify NFS Share
To verify the NFS share, let’s create some files and directories on the NFS server.
mkdir /nfs_share/dir1
mkdir /nfs_share/dir2
touch /nfs_share/file1
touch /nfs_share/file2
touch /nfs_share/file3
Now, go back to your client system and verify all files and directories in your mounted directory:
ls -l /opt/client_share
You will get the following output:
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 4 09:04 dir1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 4 09:04 dir2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 4 09:04 file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 4 09:04 file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 4 09:04 file3
You can also check the NFS stats using the following command:
nfsstat
You will get the following output:
Client rpc stats:
calls retrans authrefrsh
30 0 30
Client nfs v3:
null getattr setattr lookup access
1 8% 4 33% 0 0% 0 0% 2 16%
readlink read write create mkdir
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
symlink mknod remove rmdir rename
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
link readdir readdirplus fsstat fsinfo
0 0% 0 0% 1 8% 1 8% 2 16%
pathconf commit
1 8% 0 0%
Client nfs v4:
null read write commit open
6 33% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
open_conf open_noat open_dgrd close setattr
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
fsinfo renew setclntid confirm lock
0 0% 0 0% 4 22% 0 0% 0 0%
lockt locku access getattr lookup
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
lookup_root remove rename link symlink
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
create pathconf statfs readlink readdir
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
server_caps delegreturn getacl setacl fs_locations
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
rel_lkowner secinfo fsid_present exchange_id create_session
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 8 44% 0 0%
destroy_session sequence get_lease_time reclaim_comp layoutget
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
getdevinfo layoutcommit layoutreturn secinfo_no test_stateid
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
free_stateid getdevicelist bind_conn_to_ses destroy_clientid seek
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
allocate deallocate layoutstats clone
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
Installing NFS Server on Linux Ubuntu 20.04 Conclusion
In the above post, we explained how to install the NFS server on Ubuntu 20.04. We also explained how to share a directory using NFS and mount it on the client machine. I hope this will help you to share files using NFS on your network.
