Mounting an NFS-share

Introduction:
Our NFS cluster offers reliable and very fast central storage and uses enterprise SSD's. NFS allows you to share files between multiple servers, and is often required for building a redundant platform. In this article we'll provide some instructions on how to mount the NFS-share on your server. Depending on your operating system in could be that you need to install additional tools to be able to mount your NFS share. On a Debian based OS you need to make sure you have  nfs-common installed. On a Red-Hat based OS please look for nfs-utils.

On Linux:
First, you'll need to create a mount point on your VPS or decide on which directory the NFS-share should be mounted.   Below is an example for mounting the NFS-share.

1. Create your mountpoint:

mkdir -p /mnt/nfs/test

2. Add the NFS-share entry according to the instructions we've provided you via e-mail (below should only be used as an example) the actual mountpoint may vary.

Open /etc/fstab with your text editor of choice, once it's open add the following entry at the end of the file:

    Haarlem DC:
stor2.tilaa.nl:/mountpoint_provided_by_us  /mnt/nfs/test        nfs     defaults,nolock,nfsvers=3 0 0

    Amsterdam DC:
stor3.tilaa.nl:/mountpoint_provided_by_us  /mnt/nfs/test        nfs     defaults,nolock,nfsvers=3 0 0

You might want to add additional mount point options depending on your preference, you should be able to find additional mount point options by opening the man page for nfs:

man nfs

3. Active the mount-point:

mount -a

 
4. Test NFS functionality:
First you might want to see if the NFS has actually been mounted properly, you can verify this by using the following command:

mount -t nfs

This should display something like the following:
stor2.tilaa.nl:/mountpoint_provided_by_us on /mnt/nfs/test type nfs (rw,nolock,nfsvers=3,addr=164.138.24.62)

 
You should be able to write something to your share:

sudo touch /mnt/nfs/test/example_file

 
If this is the case then you've succesfully mounted your NFS-share and it can now be used as you like.

On FreeBSD: 
For FreeBSD please follow the steps provided below to mount your NFS share.

1. First edit /etc/rc.conf and add the following entry:

nfs_client_enable="YES"

This makes sure the service is started at boot time.

2. Start the nfsclient:

service nfsclient start

3. Create your mointpoint, in this example we'll use /mnt/nfs/test:

mkdir -p /mnt/nfs/test

4. Mount the remote NFS-share to the directory you just created on your VPS:

sudo mount -t nfs -o nfsv3,nolockd stor2.tilaa.nl:/mountpoint_provided_by_us /mnt/nfs/test 

5. Verify if the NFS-share has been mounted properly (also check if you can write and read files to it).

mount -t nfs 

6. Create an entry in /etc/fstab to make sure it's mounted at boot time:

stor2.tilaa.nl:/mountpoint_provided_by_us /mnt/nfs/test nfs nfsv3,nolockd,rw 0 0

On Windows:
1. Install the NFS client feature

1.	Launch Server Manager
2. 	On the top-left side of the console, click Manage.
3. 	Click Add Roles and Features.
4. 	On the Before you begin screen, click Next.
5. 	On the Select installation type screen, select Role-based or feature-based installation, and then click Next.
6. 	On the Select destination server screen, if you are installing to the local server, click Next. Otherwise, select a server from the Server Pool list.
7. 	On the Select server roles screen, click Next.
8. 	On the Select features screen, scroll down the list of available features until you see Client for NFS. Click its checkbox to select it for installation, and then click Next.
9. 	On the Confirm installation selections screen, review your selections and then click Install.
10. 	After the installation completes, review the results and then click Close.

2. Mount the NFS-share

1. Open the file explorer (Windows + E)
2. Click on "Computer" > "Map Network Drive".
3. Add the share location provided by Tilaa.
4. The drive should now be mapped and available for use.

3. Mount NFS-share at startup

Although not recommended, it's possible to mount the NFS-share at startup by creating a batch file. The batch file can then be added to the task scheduler to run at system startup. The following line should be added to the batch file in order for this to work:

 net use w: \\stor2.tilaa.nl\mountpoint_provided_by_us

Please note that this method is not advised and should be used at your own risk.