AIX NFS setup

How to setup NFS server in AIX

This guide is recorded to help myself remember how to set up NFS service in AIX 7.1.

Turn on NFS server service

The easier way is to use smitty.

root@myserver:/> smitty nfs

Select "Network File system NFS"

Select "Configure NFS on This System"

Go to the "Start NFS" menu

Decide if you want NFS to start up automatically after each reboot. I selected "both" as i want it online all the time.


Done. You may see some output, unless there are any errors, you may want to check the NFS configurations otherwise, just see the "OK" status on the top left hand corner.


You should now have some services listening for NFS, like nfs and mountd processes

root@myserver:/> rpcinfo -p
   program vers proto   port  service
    100000    4   udp    111  portmapper
    100000    3   udp    111  portmapper
    100000    2   udp    111  portmapper
    100000    4   tcp    111  portmapper
    100000    3   tcp    111  portmapper
    100000    2   tcp    111  portmapper
    100003    2   udp   2049  nfs
    100003    3   udp   2049  nfs
    100003    2   tcp   2049  nfs
    100003    3   tcp   2049  nfs
    100003    4   tcp   2049  nfs
    200006    1   udp   2049
    200006    4   udp   2049
    200006    1   tcp   2049
    200006    4   tcp   2049
    100005    1   tcp  32768  mountd
    100005    2   tcp  32768  mountd
    100005    3   tcp  32768  mountd
    100005    1   udp  32772  mountd
    100005    2   udp  32772  mountd
    100005    3   udp  32772  mountd
    400005    1   udp  32773
    100024    1   tcp  32769  status
    100024    1   udp  32779  status
    100133    1   tcp  32769
    100133    1   udp  32786
    200001    1   tcp  32769
    200001    1   udp  32793
    200001    2   tcp  32769
    200001    2   udp  32800
    100021    1   udp  32803  nlockmgr
    100021    2   udp  32803  nlockmgr
    100021    3   udp  32803  nlockmgr
    100021    4   udp  32803  nlockmgr
    100021    1   tcp  32770  nlockmgr
    100021    2   tcp  32770  nlockmgr
    100021    3   tcp  32770  nlockmgr
    100021    4   tcp  32770  nlockmgr

The file "/etc/rc.nfs" is used to control what NFS / NIS services can be started up.

Adding a directory into NFS service.

Method 1: use smitty

Start up smitty like above then go to the "Add a Directory to Exports List" menu.

Fill up the Pathname of directory to export, leave UID as "-2", set the NFS version (i used 3 as this is the best version i think all my servers can talk), then set which accounts from which servers can access this directory.



Method 2: use the CLI way.

Edit the exports file

root@myserver:/> more /etc/exports
/opt/myfolder/data -sec=sys:krb5p:krb5i:krb5:dh,rw,root=myserver
/opt/myfolder/binaries -sec=sys:krb5p:krb5i:krb5:dh,ro=myserver,root=myserver

AIX is very strict on who can access the partition, so make sure you add in who can mount the partition, i.e. root otherwise, you will not be able to mount the partition. Also ensure that both NFS server and client can use the same security protocol, otherwise the result is same as above. Lastly, put in explicitly who can read-write or read-only to control access.

Make sure that both the server and client end has each other's hostname and IP in the hosts files otherwise the next step will fail.

then restart the exports service

exportfs -a

Now we check and confirm NFS is shared as we want it.

root@myserver:/> exportfs
/opt/myfolder/data -sec=sys:krb5p:krb5i:krb5:dh,rw,root=myserver
/opt/myfolder/binaries     -sec=sys:krb5p:krb5i:krb5:dh,ro=myserver,root=myserver

If you are sharing between AIX and Solaris or Linux, use NFS version 3 for now to have full compatibility. For AIX NFS server, set in "Allow Access by NFS versions" entry. For Solaris client, mount with "-o vers=3" option.