Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up NFS on Rocky Linux 8.9

What Is NFS?

Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file‑system protocol that allows files on a remote server to be accessed and manipulated as if they were on a local disk. Originally released by Sun Microsystems in 1984, NFS works on a client‑server model and supports operations such as read, write, create, delete, and permission management across different operating systems and hardware platforms.

Experimental Topology

Two Rocky Linux 8.9 hosts (named nfs-server and nfs-client) are connected to the same network via the e0 NIC (with NAT on Net1) and to a management network via e1 for remote administration.

Server Configuration

Install NFS utilities

yum -y install nfs-utils    # Install the NFS utilities package

Verify installation:

rpm -qa | grep nfs    # List installed NFS‑related packages

Create and prepare the shared directory

mkdir /nfsfile                # Create the export directory
chmod 777 /nfsfile           # Grant read/write/execute to everyone
echo 'This is a nfs shared folder.' > /nfsfile/README

Configure export permissions

Edit /etc/exports and add a line that maps the directory to the client subnet. No spaces are allowed between the client address and the option list.

vim /etc/exports
/nfsfile 172.16.0.*(rw,sync,root_squash)

Common export options:

ro : read‑only

rw : read‑write

root_squash : map client‑side root to anonymous UID/GID

no_root_squash : preserve client root privileges

all_squash : map all client users to anonymous

sync : write data to both memory and disk before replying

async : write to memory first for better performance (risk of data loss)

Start and enable required services

systemctl restart rpcbind.service
systemctl enable rpcbind.service
systemctl enable --now nfs-server.service

Open firewall ports

firewall-cmd --add-service=nfs --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-service=rpc-bind --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-service=mountd --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Client Configuration

Install NFS utilities and view exports

yum -y install nfs-utils    # Install client utilities
showmount -e 172.16.0.100   # List exports from the server

Output example:

/nfsfile 172.16.0.*

Mount the shared directory

mkdir /nfsfile
mount -t nfs 172.16.0.100:/nfsfile /nfsfile
df -Th   # Verify the mount

Persist the mount via /etc/fstab

# Add the following line to /etc/fstab
172.16.0.100:/nfsfile /nfsfile nfs defaults 0 0

After editing, run mount -a to apply the changes.