Background
The Network File System (NFS, referring to the nfsd daemon, not the general overarching concept of network file systems) is handy when you need to access a large, centralized file store from one or more servers throughout your LAN. NFS over WAN would take more consideration and more in-depth investigate as to what your “lowest common denominator” would be (i.e. your weakest link may be beyond your control).
On a LAN, NFS works well. It’s responsive, easy to set up, and robust in a variety of environments.
The setup involves a client accesses the data made available by another machine, the server.
Overview
If I may borrow this well-written excerpt from this Wikipedia article:
- The server implements NFS daemon processes, running by default as
nfsd, to make its data generically available to clients. - The server administrator determines what to make available, exporting the names and parameters of directories, typically using the
/etc/exportsconfiguration file and theexportfscommand. - The server security-administration ensures that it can recognize and approve validated clients.
- The server network configuration ensures that appropriate clients can negotiate with it through any firewall system.
- The client machine requests access to exported data, typically by issuing a
mountcommand. (The client asks the server (rpcbind) which port the NFS server is using, the client connects to the NFS server (nfsd), nfsd passes the request to mountd) - If all goes well, users on the client machine can then view and interact with mounted filesystems on the server within the parameters permitted.
Note that automation of the NFS mounting process may take place — perhaps using /etc/fstab and/or automounting facilities.
Quick GuideS
CentOS 7
A very helpful guide for NFS on CentOS 7 can be found here.
More References
How NFS is Implemented in the Linux Kernel
RFC Documents