File systems can also be imported manually from an NFS server. The prerequisite for this is a running RPC port mapper, which can be started by entering rcportmap start as root. Once this prerequisite is met, remote exported file systems can be mounted in the file system just like local hard disks using the mount command in the following manner:
mount host:remote-path local-path
If user directories from the machine nfs.example.com, for example, should be imported, use the following command:
mount nfs.example.com:/home /home
The idmapd service must be up and running on the client to do an NFSv4 import. Start the idmapd service from the command prompt with rcidmapd start. Use rcidmapd status to check the status of idmapd.
The idmapd services stores its parameters in the /etc/idmapd.conf file. Leave the value of the Domain parameter as localdomain. Ensure that the value specified is the same for both the NFS client and NFS server.
Make NFSv4 imports by giving a command from the shell prompt. To import NFSv4 remote file systems, use the following command:
mount -t nfs4 host:/ local-path
Replace host with the NFS server that hosts one or more NFSv4 exports and local-path with the directory location in the client machine where this should be mounted. For example, to import /home exported with NFSv4 on nfs.example.com to /local/home, use the following command:
mount -t nfs4 nfs.example.com:/ /local/home
The remote file system path that follows the server name and a colon is
a slash /
. This is unlike the way it is specified for v3
imports, where the exact path of the remote file system is given. This
is a concept called pseudo file system, which is
explained in Exporting File Systems with YaST.
As well as the regular local device mounts, the autofs daemon can be used to mount remote file systems automatically too. To do this, add the following entry in the your /etc/auto.master file:
/nfsmounts /etc/auto.nfs
Now the /nfsmounts directory acts as a root for all the NFS mounts on the client if the auto.nfs file is completed appropriately. The name auto.nfs is chosen for sake of convenience—you can choose any name. In the selected file (create it if it does not exist), add entries for all the NFS mounts as in the following example:
localdata -fstype=nfs server1:/data nfs4mount -fstype=nfs4 server2:/
Activate the settings with rcautofs start. For this example, /nfsmounts/localdata, the /data directory of server1, is then mounted with NFS and /nfsmounts/nfs4mount from server2 is mounted with NFSv4.
If the /etc/auto.master file is edited while the service autofs is running, the automounter must be restarted for the changes to take effect. Do this with rcautofs restart.
A typical NFSv3 mount entry in /etc/fstab looks like this:
nfs.example.com:/data /local/path nfs rw,noauto 0 0
NFSv4 mounts may also be added to the /etc/fstab file manually. For these mounts, use nfs4 instead of nfs in the third column and make sure that the remote file system is given as / after the nfs.example.com: in the first column. A sample line for an NFSv4 mount in /etc/fstab looks like this:
nfs.example.com:/ /local/pathv4 nfs4 rw,noauto 0 0
The noauto option prevents the file system from being mounted automatically at start up. If you want to mount the respective file system manually, it is possible to shorten the command for mounting and it is only needed to provide the mount point as in:
mount /local/path
Note, that if you do not enter the noauto option, the initialization scripts of the system will handle the mount of those file systems at start up.