Network File System (NFS)
Problem
I have a problem. I got two linux boxes and I need one of them to access and modify a directory of the other box.
Solution
Network File Systems (NFS) 🙌
Table of Contents
- Setup NFS Server - set this up on the box that contains the directory you want to share
- Setup NFS Client
Setup NFS Server
On Debian or Ubuntu install NFS server via:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server
Create directory you want to share
sudo mkdir /home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared
Set permissions
sudo chown nobody:nogroup /home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared #no-one is owner
sudo chmod 777 /home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared #everyone can modify files
Define access for NFS clients in /etc/exports file.
Example file /etc/exports:
/home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared 192.168.111.38/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
Set changes and restart NFS server
sudo exportfs -a #making the file share available
sudo systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server #restarting the NFS kernel
Setup NFS Client
On Debian or Ubuntu install the NFS client dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install nfs-common
Mount the NFS directory temporarily
sudo mount -t nfs {IP of NFS server}:{folder path on server} /home/client
sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.111.10:/home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared /home/client
Mount the NFS directory PERMANENTLY
In /etc/fstab file add the following line:
{IP of NFS server}:{folder path on server} /var/locally-mounted nfs defaults 0 0
# e.g.
192.168.111.10:/home/marcuschiu/directory-to-be-shared /home/client nfs defaults 0 0
Verify
Verify writing in one box reflects it’s changes in another box!