Questions and problems with NFS4

J.A. Magallón
2010-07-27T22:51:16Z

Hi all...

I'm beginning to move my boxen to use nfs4, and have some questions...

First of all, versions of my software: kernel 2.6.33.5, nfs-utils 1.2.2
(perhaps some of my doubts are solved in newer versions)

Questions:

- Is it mandatory to use a setup with a common root for exported filesystems ?
In my setup I first did not use it, no fsid=0 root, and everything
worked fine, just change the mount type in the clients. In fact, new
nfs-utils just try first version 4 and you dont have to do anything.
You loose the ability to use simple paths inside /export, for example,
and have to use full paths like in V3, but that is not so bad.
Am I loosing something else wrt functionality ?

- If you have a common root, is it mandatory to mount it in the client ?

- If I setup a common root (say /export), and aoutomount some folders:

/scratch/local
/scratch/node/00
/scratch/node/01
......
/export/scratch -> /scratch/local (bind mount).

/scratch/node/?? is automounted from node ??, in which it is its own
/scratch/local. When I acess scratch for local node, it backs to a local
mount and mounts the REAL /scratch, not /export/scratch.
Any ideas ?

- AFAIK, with NFS4 the only needed daemons are nfsd and idmapd. And the
only accesible port from the outside is 2049, for nfsd.
I have tried to strip down my nfs server (-N 2 -N 3 -U),
but rpcinfo still gives me:

annwn:~# rpcinfo -p localhost
program vers proto port service
100000 4 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 3 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 4 udp 111 portmapper
100000 3 udp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100024 1 udp 48461 status
100024 1 tcp 37515 status
100021 1 udp 38583 nlockmgr
100021 3 udp 38583 nlockmgr
100021 4 udp 38583 nlockmgr
100021 1 tcp 37873 nlockmgr
100021 3 tcp 37873 nlockmgr
100021 4 tcp 37873 nlockmgr
100003 4 tcp 2049 nfs
100005 1 udp 45341 mountd
100005 1 tcp 58639 mountd

disabling portampper and mountd is just a matter of initscripts
requirements, but how can I disable nlockmgr ? It isn't needed for
NFS4, isn't it ? Nor portmapper nor mountd...

TIA

--
J.A. Magallon <jamagallon()ono!com> \ Software is like sex:
\ It's better when it's free