Network File System (NFS)

Dec 1, 2018
^{Last modified: Dec 2, 2018}

NFS allows sharing files over a network. By using NFS, users and programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files.

Tested on ubuntu:16.04

References:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpNFSHowTo

Setting up NFS Server

Run all these commands as root.

install nfs-kernel-server:

apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

create the export filesystem:

mkdir -p /export/mydata

bind your data directory /somedir/mydata to export filesystem:

mount --bind /somedir/mydata /export/mydata

mount this in /etc/fstab:

/somedir/mydata    /export/mydata   none    bind  0  0

export directories in /etc/exports to the local network 192.168.7.1/24:

/export        192.168.7.1/24(rw,fsid=0,insecure,no_subtree_check,async)
/export/mydata 192.168.7.1/24(rw,nohide,insecure,no_subtree_check,async)

restart the service:

service nfs-kernel-server restart

Setting up NFSv4 Client

Make sure you have an NFS server up and running, see: nfs-server.

Run all these commands as root.

install nfs-common:

apt-get install nfs-common

Mounting NFS as local file system

mount root export (defaults to export with fsid=0) to /mnt:

mount -t nfs -o proto=tcp,port=2049 <nfs-server-IP>:/ /mnt

or, mount an exported subtree, to /home:

mount -t nfs -o proto=tcp,port=2049 <nfs-server-IP>:/mydata /home/mydata

to make it automount to /mnt, add this to /etc/fstab:

<nfs-server-IP>:/   /mnt   nfs    auto  0  0

Mounting as Docker Volume

A sample docker-compose.yml

Docker volume named nfs is mounted to container in /root/nfs.

version: '3.5'
services:
  web:
    volumes:
      - "nfs:/root/nfs"

And docker volume nfs is mounted with driver options:

driver is local, and its options are similar to mount in linux
type is nfs
device is path of where the exported subtree is in NFS server
proto is tcp, and port is 2049 for NFSv4
addr is IP address of NFS server
rw is for read/write permissions

volumes:
  nfs:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      device: ":/export/mydata"
      o: "addr=192.168.7.140,rw,proto=tcp,port=2049"