How to Install and Configure an NFS Server on Linux System

NFS (Network File System) is the method of sharing files over
the internet to the clients. If you’re familiar with the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) system, the
NFS server will be pretty much easy to understand. Installing and
configuring an NFS server on a Linux machine allows users to share
public or private files among clients over the Local area network
or worldwide. You can also manage whether you want to grand the
read-only or the read-write access to your clients. ^[1]

NFS Server on Linux

NFS server has two basic parts, one is Client end, and another
one is host/server end. To install and configure the NFS server,
both ends require installing the NFS Kernel for Linux. After the
Kernel and total installation process are done, you can assign an
IP address, or if you have a DNS protocol, you can also use a
Uniform Resource Locator address against
your server’s shared IP.^[2]

If you’re familiar with the FTP system or Samba,^[3]
this tutorial will be helpful to you. But be mindful, most of the
servers are run on Linux around the world, so learning the NFS
server will be a strong start for you to enter into the networking
zone. So, fasten your seat belt, in this post we are going to learn
how to install and configure the NFS server on Linux for both
client and server end.

Step 1: Update Server and Put a
Hostname

Before you start installing the NFS Kernel on your Linux, be
mindful that you must have a static IP address so that your clients
can find and get associated with your server. If you use a dynamic
IP address, it would be very much tough for your clients to locate
your NFS server. Use the apt update
&&; syntax and the hostnamectl commands simultaneously to
set your static IP address for the NFS server. ^[4]

sudo apt update &&
sudo apt upgrade
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname nfs-server.example.com --static

Step 2: Installing the NFS Kernel
on Linux

NFS Kernel is the core system of Network File System, and it
gives the user the permission to make changes on network protocol
and also authorizes the file access permission. To install NFS
Kernel on Ubuntu Server, first, you need to use apt
update to update your repositories.

Then you’ll be installing the NFS Kernel on your Ubuntu Linux
server. But it’s always a smart decision to make sure whether the
NFS Kernel is already installed inside your Linux machine or not.
To check just run the grep command^[5]
in your terminal.

$ dpkg -l | grep nfs-kernel-server

To install NFS Kernel on Linux, use the following CLIs’.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server

Now to enable the NFS Kernel, run the command line given below in
your Linux terminal.

$ sudo systemctl enable --now nfs-server

Step 3: Making Directory for the
NFS Server

Once the Kernel of your NFS server is installed inside your
Linux machine, now you can step a forward to make a directory which
folder you want to share with others. We will be using the
mkdir terminal command line to make the directories.
After creating the directories we will export files to the NFS
directory by using the exportfs command.

$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfsshare
$ sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /mnt/nfsshare/
$ sudo exportfs -rav

Now you have to authorize the directory so that the client can
get access to the directory.

$ sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /data/nfsshare/
$ sudo chmod 777 /data/nfsshare/

Step 4: Mounting the NFS Server
Directory for Clients

When it is all about an NFS server on Linux, there will
definitely be at least one feeding end to serve and one or more
ends to receive the service, which called the client. At this
stage, we are going to mount the shared file directory from the
server to the client end. We can use the ifconfig
terminal command to find out the specific IP address of the client.
We can choose one or multiple users. Let the IP address of the
client is 192.168.1.102

$ ifconfig
$ sudo mount 192.168.1.102:/mnt/nfsshare /mnt/nfsclientshare

You can also use these command lines for the mounting directory
in the client end. You can also choose the read-only or both
read-write access to your client by using the re
syntax or the rw syntax. To maintain a synchronous
directory, use the sync syntax and, at last, use the
no_subtree_check syntax to avoid checking the
subfolders inside the shared directory.

For a single client user:

/mnt/nfsshare IP1 (rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

For multiple client user:

/mnt/nfsshare IP1 (rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
/mnt/nfsshare IP2 (rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Step 5: Exporting Files in the NFS
Server Directory

After installing the NFS Kernel on your Linux, and giving
read-only or read-write file access to your client, now it’s time
to export some files inside your shared directory. To export files,
you can use the following terminal commands in your Linux machine.
And after exporting files, don’t forget to restart your NFS Kernel
to reload the server caches.

$ sudo exportfs -a
$ sudo systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server

Step 6: Approving the Firewall
Security to the NFS Server

After doing all this stuff, if you find that your client still
can’t get access to your Linux NFS server, probably you forget the
firewall security^[6]
on your Linux. Now it’s time to do the last part of setting up your
server. To get the firewall access for your NFS server, use the
following terminal command lines. And also, don’t forget to restart
the firewall system form your NFS server end. If you want to assign
any specific port against the IP address, simply add the port with
a slash. For the firewall, we are using the
ufw syntax.

$ sudo ufw allow from 192.1.102.0/
$ sudo ufw enable
$ sudo ufw status

Step 7: Setting up the NFS Server
for the Clients

To get access to the distributed directory that has been shared
from the NFS server end, the client must also have to get
associated with the Linux NFS common. Use the following terminal
command lines to set up your Linux NFS server-client system.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install nfs-common

Step 8: Setting Up an NFS Mount
Point for Clients

Setting up an NFS mount point on Linux is the last step of
configuring the NFS server on Linux. Here, we will be creating a
directory using the mkdir terminal command in the
client environment where the shared files can be stored. After
creating the client folder, we can check the client IP address for
cross-checking using the ifconfig command.

$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs_clientshare
$ ifconfig
$ sudo mount 192.168.1.102:/mnt/nfs_share /mnt/nfs_clientshare

Step 9: Checking Up the NFS
Server

Here we go! Our NFS server is ready to be performed on our Linux
system. To check whether the NFS server works properly or not, we
can send some dummy files from the host server to the shared
directory using the mnt command. Then we will get access to the
files from the client end. The touch command is very useful to
create dummy files.

$ cd /mnt/nfsshare/
$ touch dummyfile.txt

To check from the client end, we will use the mnt
list command associated with the client share directory.

$ ls -l /mnt/nfs_clientshare/

Installing NFS Server on Red Hat
Linux

Installing the NFS server on Red Hat Linux is a bit different
than the Debian’s. That’s why I’m going to write a totally new
paragraph for Red Hat Linux users, but the primary procedures are
almost the same as previously. You need to install the NFS Kernel
on your Red Hat Linux. To do that, please follow the instructions
and terminal command lines from your Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

$ yum -y install nfs-utils
$ apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

For SUSE Linux distributions:

$ sudo zypper install nfs-client

Now you have to make an NFS root directory and
export files inside the directory. Follow these terminal commands
to do that.

$ mkdir /nfsroot
$ exportfs -r

On Red Hat Linux, to initiate the NFS server, use the command
written below. And to make your NFS server accessible to your
clients, run and mount your server use the subsequent terminal
command.

$ /etc/init.d/nfs start
$ showmount -e

Now it’s time to install the NFS common packages on your Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. To install the NFS common, run this command from
your Linux terminal.

$sudo yum install nfs-utils

Bonus Tip

Till now, we have learned how to install and configure the NFS
server on Linux. When the question about freedom and open source,
the choice is always yours! Whatever server you use, you can use
either Apache Web Server^[7]
or NFS server but, you will need to know some basic and useful server commands^[8]
to maintain your server; otherwise, your server may crash.

Final Thoughts

File sharing on Linux is very crucial and not critical. In this
post, we have tried to explain briefly what an NFS server is and
how it works. The entire post is all about how to set up the NFS
Kernel as well as the NFS server on various Linux distros and how
to set up the client end so that the client gets access to your NFS
server.

We hope the post was useful, and the guidelines were clear to
understand. If you do maintain an NFS server, of course, you know
how important it is to understand the primary functions and working
procedure of an NFS server on Linux. So, if you like this post,
don’t forget to share this post on your social media and also do
comment related to this post in the comment section.