NFS, or Network File System, is a distributed file system that allows users on a network to access files and directories on remote systems as if they were on the local system. NFS is often used in Linux environments to share files and directories between multiple systems, and it can be a convenient and efficient way to access and manage files on a network.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configure an NFS server and client on Ubuntu 22.04. We will be setting up the NFS server on a system running Ubuntu 22.04, and the NFS client on a separate system also running Ubuntu 22.04.

Installing the NFS Server

To install the NFS server on Ubuntu 22.04, we first need to update the package index and install the nfs-kernel-server package. This package provides the necessary components to run an NFS server on Ubuntu.

To update the package index and install the nfs-kernel-server package, use the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server

After the package is installed, we need to configure the NFS server by editing the /etc/exports file. This file is used to specify the directories that should be shared by the NFS server, and the clients that are allowed to access those directories.

To share the /mnt/nfs directory with the NFS server, we can add the following line to the /etc/exports file:

/mnt/nfs 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

This line specifies that the /mnt/nfs directory should be shared with the NFS server, and that clients on the 192.168.1.0/24 network are allowed to access the directory with read-write permissions.

After you have added the necessary lines to the /etc/exports file, you can save the file and restart the NFS server to apply the changes.

sudo service nfs-kernel-server restart

The NFS server is now installed and configured, and it is ready to share the `/mnt

Installing the NFS Client

To access the files and directories shared by the NFS server, we need to install the NFS client on the client system. To do this, we can use the same apt commands that we used to install the NFS server on the server system.

First, update the package index and install the nfs-common package on the client system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nfs-common

After the nfs-common package is installed, we can mount the shared directory on the client system. To do this, we need to create a mount point for the shared directory, and then use the mount command to mount the directory.

For example, to mount the /mnt/nfs directory shared by the NFS server on the /mnt/nfs-client directory on the client system, we can use the following commands:

sudo mkdir /mnt/nfs-client
sudo mount 192.168.1.1:/mnt/nfs /mnt/nfs-client

This will mount the /mnt/nfs directory from the NFS server on the /mnt/nfs-client directory on the client system. The /mnt/nfs-client directory will now be accessible on the client system, and you can access the files and directories in the shared directory as if they were on the local system.

To make the mount persistent across reboots, you can add an entry for the shared directory in the /etc/fstab file on the client system. For example, to automatically mount the /mnt/nfs directory from the NFS server on the /mnt/nfs-client directory on the client system, you can add the following line to the /etc/fstab file:

192.168.1.1:/mnt/nfs /mnt/nfs-client nfs defaults 0 0