Mounting the Moonrise NFS

Edit: As of February 2015, all our servers are running CentOS 7. The original instructions below are for Debian/Ubuntu linux, but here is a better set of generalized instructions for CentOS: https://www.howtoforge.com/nfs-server-and-client-on-centos-7

If you are mounting on an Ubuntu/Debian system, you can still use the instructions below. If you are mounting on a Red Hat derivative (Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, ScientificLinux, etc.), the link above should work.


 

I just had to re-learn how to do this today, so I thought it would be a good idea to write it up.

If any of you would like to mount the NFS on a computer (Unix, and static IPs only. This means no wireless!) in the building, you can do so at your convenience using this guide.

First, install nfs-common with your package manager (ubuntu: apt-get install nfs-common)

Next, create a folder for the mount to bind to on your computer, and make sure the permissions are set to 777:

user@mycomputer: mkdir -p /nameofyourNFSfolder
user@mycomputer: chmod 777 /nameofyourNFSfolder

I think the whole tree needs the same permissions, so what I’ve done for all our machines (and what seems easiest) is to make a folder in the root directory, so that you don’t have to worry about the permissions in parent folders.

Next, the /etc/hosts.allowed and /etc/exports files on moonrise need to be modified. Chris, Frances, and I all have the necessary permissions to do this. Just ask one of us and we can do it.

root@mooonrise: nano /etc/exports

Add the following to the line beginning with /data/raid5part1
137.82.4.XXX(rw,sync) (with XXX standing in for the static IP of your machine)

You could also do this with machines in other buildings/off-campus as long as their IPs are static.

root@moonrise: nano /etc/hosts.allow

Your IP has to be added to the end of each line in this file.

Now reload the /etc/exports file on moonrise (a full NFS restart is not required, and will unmount it on other machines! don’t do that unless you know for sure that no one is using the NFS on any of our computers!)

root@moonrise: exportfs -a

Finally, mount the NFS on your machine:

user@mycomputer: sudo mount -v -o nolock -t nfs moonrise.zoology.ubc.ca:/data/raid5part1 /nameofyourNFSfolder

There are various options you can use with the mount command, but the above should work for just about anyone.

If you want it to auto-mount each time you boot your computer, you can add the following lines to your /etc/fstab file:
#moonriseNFS
137.82.4.123:/data/raid5part1 /nameofyourNFSfolder nfs auto 0 0

That’s it!