The Network File System (NFS) is a distributed filesystem
that provides transparent access to files and directories that are
shared by remote systems. It enables you to centralize the administration
of these files and directories. NFS provides a single copy of the
directory that can be shared by all the systems on the network,
instead of duplicating common directories, such as /usr/local on each system.
How
NFS works |
 |
The NFS environment consists of the following components:
The NFS services is a collection of daemons and kernel components,
and commands that enable systems with different architectures running different
operating systems to share filesystems across a network. The physical
location of the filesystem does not affect the NFS services. The NFS
services enable you to place a copy of the filesystem on an NFS server
and allow all other systems, or a subset of systems in the network to
access it.
Filesystems that are shared between an NFS server and an NFS
client across a network are known as NFS filesystems. The shared
filesystem can refer to an entire file hierarchy, or a single file.
In the NFS context, a system that shares its filesystems over
a network is known as a server, and a system that mounts and accesses
these shared filesystems is known as a client. The NFS service enables
a system to access a filesystem located on a remote system.
Once the filesystem is shared by a server, it can be accessed
by a client. Clients access files on the server by mounting the
shared filesystem. For users, these mounted filesystems appear as
a part of the local filesystem.
Printable version
