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CONTENTS
Prerequisites
Step 1 — Downloading and Installing the Components
Step 2 — Creating the Share Directories on the Host
Step 3 — Configuring the NFS Exports on the Host Server
Step 4 — Adjusting the Firewall on the Host
Step 5 — Creating Mount Points and Mounting Directories on the Client
Step 6 — Testing NFS Access
Step 7 — Mounting the Remote NFS Directories at Boot
Step 8 — Unmounting an NFS Remote Share
Conclusion

// Tutorial //

How To Set Up an NFS Mount on Ubuntu 18.04

Published on July 5, 2018 · Updated on April 5, 2022

Ubuntu Networking Ubuntu 18.04

By Melissa Anderson
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5/29/23, 12:39 AM How To Set Up an NFS Mount on Ubuntu 18.04 | DigitalOcean

Not using Ubuntu 18.04?

Choose a different version or distribution.
Ubuntu 18.04

Introduction

NFS, or Network File System, is a distributed file system protocol that allows you to mount
remote directories on your server. This lets you manage storage space in a different
location and write to that space from multiple clients. NFS provides a relatively standard
and performative way to access remote systems over a network and works well in
situations where the shared resources must be accessed regularly.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to install the software needed for NFS functionality on Ubuntu
18.04, configure NFS mounts on a server and client, and mount and unmount the remote
shares.
Prerequisites

We’ll use two servers in this tutorial, with one sharing part of its filesystem with the other.
To complete this tutorial, you will need:

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Two Ubuntu 18.04 servers. Each of these should have a non-root user with sudo
privileges configured, a firewall set up with UFW, and private networking if it’s
available to you.
For assistance setting up a non-root user with sudo privileges and a firewall,
follow our Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 18.04 guide.
If you’re using DigitalOcean Droplets for your server and client, read How To
Create a VPC to set up a private network.
Throughout this tutorial, we refer to the server that shares its directories as the host and
the server that mounts these directories as the client. We’ll use the following IP addresses
as stand-ins for the host and client values:
Host: 203.0.113.0
Client: 203.0.113.24
When these IP addresses appear in commands and configuration files, replace them with
your own respective host and client IP addresses.
Step 1 — Downloading and Installing the Components

First begin by installing the necessary components on each server.

On the Host

On the host server, install the nfs-kernel-server package, which will allow you to share
your directories. Since this is the first operation that you’re performing with apt in this
session, refresh your local package index before the installation:
host$ sudo apt update Copy
Next, install the package:
host$ sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server Copy
Once these packages are installed, switch to the client server.
On the Client

On the client server, install a package called nfs-common , which provides NFS functionality
without including server components. Again, refresh the local package index prior to
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installation to ensure that you have up-to-date information:

client$ sudo apt update Copy
Then, install the package:
client$ sudo apt install nfs-common Copy
Now that both servers have the necessary packages, you can start configuring them.
Step 2 — Creating the Share Directories on the Host

We’re going to share two separate directories with different configuration settings in order
to illustrate two key ways that NFS mounts can be configured with respect to superuser
access.
Superusers can do anything anywhere on their system. However, NFS-mounted directories
are not part of the system on which they are mounted, so by default, the NFS server
refuses to perform operations that require superuser privileges. This default restriction
means that superusers on the client cannot write files as root, reassign ownership, or
perform any other superuser tasks on the NFS mount.
Sometimes, however, there are trusted users on the client system who need to perform
these actions on the mounted file system but who have no need for superuser access on
the host. You can configure the NFS server to allow this, although it introduces an element
of risk, as such a user could gain root access to the entire host system.
Example 1: Exporting a General Purpose Mount

In the first example, you’ll create a general-purpose NFS mount that uses default NFS
behavior to make it difficult for a user with root privileges on the client machine to interact
with the host using those client superuser privileges. You might use something like this to
store files that were uploaded using a content management system or to create space for
users to share project files.
First, make a shared directory:
host$ sudo mkdir /var/nfs/general -p Copy
Since you’re creating it with sudo , the directory is owned by the host’s root user:
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host$ ls -la /var/nfs/general Copy

Output
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 7 23:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Feb 7 23:21 ..

NFS will translate any root operations on the client to the nobody:nogroup credentials as a
security measure. Therefore, you need to change the directory ownership to match those
credentials:
host$ sudo chown nobody:nogroup /var/nfs/general Copy
You’re now ready to export this directory.
Example 2: Exporting the Home Directory

In our second example, the goal is to make user home directories stored on the host
available on client servers, while allowing trusted administrators of those client servers the
access they need to conveniently manage users.
To do this, you’ll export the /home directory. Since it already exists, you don’t need to
create it. You won’t change the permissions, either. If you did, it could lead to a range of
issues for anyone with a home directory on the host machine.
Step 3 — Configuring the NFS Exports on the Host

Server

Next, we’ll dive into the NFS configuration file to set up the sharing of these resources.
On the host machine, open the /etc/exports file in your preferred text editor with root
privileges. Here we’ll use nano :
host$ sudo nano /etc/exports Copy
The file has comments showing the general structure of each configuration line. The syntax
is as follows:
/etc/exports
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directory_to_share client ( share_option1 , ... , share_optionN )

You’ll need to create a line for each of the directories that you plan to share. Since our
example client has an IP of 203.0.113.24 , our lines will look like the following. Be sure to
change the IP address to that of your client:
/etc/exports
/var/nfs/general 203.0.113.24 (rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
/home 203.0.113.24 (rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

Here, we’re using the same configuration options for both directories with the exception of
no_root_squash . Let’s review what each of these options mean:

rw : This option gives the client computer both read and write access to the volume.
sync : This option forces NFS to write changes to disk before replying. This results in a
more stable and consistent environment since the reply reflects the actual state of
the remote volume. However, it also reduces the speed of file operations.
no_subtree_check : This option prevents subtree checking, which is a process where
the host must check whether the file is actually still available in the exported tree for
every request. This can cause many problems when a file is renamed while the client
has it opened. In almost all cases, it is better to disable subtree checking.
no_root_squash : By default, NFS translates requests from a root user remotely into a
non-privileged user on the server. This was intended as security feature to prevent a
root account on the client from using the file system of the host as root.
no_root_squash disables this behavior for certain shares.

When you’re finished making your changes, save and close the file. If you’re using nano ,
you can do this by pressing CTRL + X then Y and ENTER . Then, to make the shares available
to the clients that you configured, restart the NFS server with the following command:
host$ sudo systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server Copy
Before you can actually use the new shares, however, you’ll need to be sure that traffic to
the shares is permitted by firewall rules.
Step 4 — Adjusting the Firewall on the Host

First, check the firewall status to confirm if it’s enabled and, if so, review what’s currently
permitted:
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host$ sudo ufw status Copy

Output
Status: active

To Action From
-- ------ ----
OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)

On our system, only SSH traffic is being allowed through, so we’ll need to add a rule for
NFS traffic.
With many applications, you can use sudo ufw app list and enable them by name, but nfs
is not one of those. However, because ufw also checks /etc/services for the port and
protocol of a service, you can still add NFS by name. Best practice recommends that you
enable the most restrictive rule that will still allow the traffic you want to permit, so rather
than enabling traffic from anywhere, you’ll be specific.
Use the following command to open port 2049 on the host, being sure to substitute your
client IP address:
host$ sudo ufw allow from 203.0.113.24 to any port nfs Copy
You can verify the change by running the following:
host$ sudo ufw status Copy
You should receive a list of traffic allowed from port 2049 in the output:
Output
Status: active

To Action From
-- ------ ----
OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere
2049 ALLOW 203.0.113.24
OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)

This confirms that UFW will only allow NFS traffic on port 2049 from your client machine.
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Step 5 — Creating Mount Points and Mounting

Directories on the Client

Now that the host server is configured and serving its shares, you’ll prepare your client.
To make the remote shares available on the client, you need to mount the directories on
the host that you want to share to empty directories on the client.
Note: If there are files and directories in your mount point, they will become hidden as soon
as you mount the NFS share. To avoid the loss of important files, be sure that if you mount
in a directory that already exists that the directory is empty.

Create two directories for your mounts. Run the following command to make the first one::
client$ sudo mkdir -p /nfs/general Copy
Then run this command to create the second::
client$ sudo mkdir -p /nfs/home Copy
Now that you have a location to put the remote shares and you’ve opened the firewall, you
can mount the shares by using the IP address of your host server, which in this guide is
203.0.113.0 :

client$ sudo mount 203.0.113.0 :/var/nfs/general /nfs/general Copy

client$ sudo mount 203.0.113.0 :/home /nfs/home

These commands will mount the shares from the host computer onto the client machine.
You can double-check that they mounted successfully in several ways. You can check this
with a mount or findmnt command, but df -h provides a more readable output that
illustrates how disk usage is displayed differently for the NFS shares:
client$ df -h Copy

Output
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 480M 0 480M 0% /dev
tmpfs 99M 5.6M 94M 6% /run

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/dev/vda1 25G 1.3G 23G 6% /

tmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vda15 105M 4.4M 100M 5% /boot/efi
tmpfs 99M 0 99M 0% /run/user/1000
203.0.113.0:/var/nfs/general 25G 1.3G 23G 6% /nfs/general
203.0.113.0:/home 25G 1.3G 23G 6% /nfs/home

Both of the shares you mounted appear at the bottom. Because they were mounted from
the same file system, they show the same disk usage. To check how much space is
actually being used under each mount point, use the disk usage command du and the path
of the mount. The -s flag provides a summary of usage rather than displaying the usage
for every file. The -h prints human-readable output:
client$ du -sh /nfs/home Copy

Output
44K /nfs/home

This shows you that the contents of the entire home directory are using only 44K of the
available space.
Step 6 — Testing NFS Access

Next, test access to the shares by writing something to each of them.

Example 1: The General Purpose Share

First, write a test file to the /var/nfs/general share:

client$ sudo touch /nfs/general/general.test Copy
Then, check its ownership:
client$ ls -l /nfs/general/general.test Copy

Output
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nogroup 0 Feb 7 23:53 /nfs/general/general.test

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Because you mounted this volume without changing NFS’s default behavior and created
the file as the client machine’s root user via the sudo command, ownership of the file
defaults to nobody:nogroup . client superusers won’t be able to perform typical
administrative actions, like changing the owner of a file or creating a new directory for a
group of users, on this NFS-mounted share.
Example 2: The Home Directory Share

To compare the permissions of the General Purpose share with the Home Directory share,
create a file in /nfs/home the same way:
client$ sudo touch /nfs/home/home.test Copy
Then review the ownership of the file:
client$ ls -l /nfs/home/home.test Copy

Output
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Feb 7 23:56 /nfs/home/home.test

You created home.test as root using the sudo command, exactly the same way you created
the general.test file. However, in this case it is owned by root because you overrode the
default behavior when you specified the no_root_squash option on this mount. This allows
your root users on the client machine to act as root and makes the administration of user
accounts much more convenient. At the same time, it means you don’t have to give these
users root access on the host.
Step 7 — Mounting the Remote NFS Directories at Boot

You can mount the remote NFS shares automatically at boot by adding them to /etc/fstab
file on the client.
Open the following file with root privileges in your preferred text editor:
client$ sudo nano /etc/fstab Copy
At the end of the file, add a line for each of your shares, like the following:
/etc/fstab
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. . .
203.0.113.0 :/var/nfs/general /nfs/general nfs auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,intr,tcp,a
203.0.113.0 :/home /nfs/home nfs auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,intr,tcp,actimeo=1

Note: You can find more information about the options specified here in the NFS man page.
You can access this by running the following command:
$ man nfs Copy

The client server will automatically mount the remote partitions at boot, although it may
take a few moments to establish the connection and for the shares to be available.
Step 8 — Unmounting an NFS Remote Share

If you no longer want the remote directory to be mounted on your system, you can
unmount it by moving out of the share’s directory structure and unmounting.
First change into the home directory:
client$ cd ~ Copy
Then unmount /nfs/home . Take note that the command is named umount not unmount as
you might expect:
client$ sudo umount /nfs/home Copy
Next, unmount /nfs/general :
client$ sudo umount /nfs/general Copy
This will remove the remote shares, leaving only your local storage accessible:
client$ df -h Copy

Output
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Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

udev 480M 0 480M 0% /dev
tmpfs 99M 5.5M 94M 6% /run
/dev/vda1 25G 1.3G 23G 6% /
tmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vda15 105M 4.4M 100M 5% /boot/efi
tmpfs 99M 0 99M 0% /run/user/1000

If you also want to prevent them from being remounted on the next reboot, edit /etc/fstab
and either delete the line or comment it out by placing a # character at the beginning of
the line. You can also prevent auto-mounting by removing the auto option, which will allow
you to mount it manually.
Conclusion

In this tutorial, you created an NFS host and illustrated some key NFS behaviors by creating
two different NFS mounts, which you shared with your NFS client. If you’re seeking to
implement NFS in production, it’s important to note that the protocol itself is not encrypted.
In cases where you’re sharing files over a private network, this may not be a problem. In
other cases, a VPN or some other type of encrypted tunnel will be necessary to protect
your data. Note that this often results in a significant reduction in performance. If
performance is an issue, consider using SSHFS.

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thiagofiliano • May 15, 2021

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I am experiencing mount.nfs: Connection timed out

Reply

Brian M • March 23, 2020

Just a FYI - intr hasn’t been supported in the kernal since 2.65. Don’t set it, it
doesn’t do anything.
In most cases defaults as mount options will do you fine.
Reply

Dale Smith • July 19, 2019

There is one problem with this - you are making the assumption that uid and gid
for the relevant user(s) are the same on client and host.
These need to be synchronized on client and server. It’s one of those little gotchas
with NFS.
However, you can use echo N > /sys/module/nfs/parameters/nfs4_disable_idmapping
(using sudo ). NFS will not send numeric uid/gid.
Source https://serverfault.com/a/632315
Reply

Anibal Ardid • June 13, 2019

Hi ! Amazing tutorial, but I have a problem. It was mounted ok, I could write and
create new file from client and saw from host. But, I couldn’t list files or directories
(ls ) from client. Neither create file in some folder from this mounted directory.
The same happened to me using sshfs.
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PD: My volumen shared size is 1TB

Best Regards !
Reply

rjb10 • December 26, 2018

What permissions are required? I have nobody:nogroup on the server and
root:root on the client machine (both using Ubuntu 18.04). Works great for data
directories but not an external hard disk drive attached to the server. When trying
to access the HDD from the client machine I receive a message that I don’t “have
the permissions necessary to view the contents.” This is new to 18.04. It worked
well on 16.04 and prior versions. Any ideas appreciated.
Reply

skarekrow • September 2, 2018

“Two Ubuntu 18.04 servers” - Is it imperative that the ubuntu versions are the
same? I’m having trouble with getting an nfs to work with a new droplet running
18.04 and a current one running 16.04. The 16.04 has no problem nfs-ing to other
16.04 droplets. Just wondered if that’s the problem? Getting the “Access denied
by server” error by the way.
Reply

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0

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