Install NFS Server on Debian 11

This article is going to take you through on how to Install NFS Server on Debian 11. NFS(Network File System) is a client/server application that allows a computer user to access, store, and update files on a remote computer. For network attached storage(NAS), NFS is one of several Distributed File System (DFS) standards .

How to Install NFS Server on Debian 11

Make sure your packages are up to date.

sudo apt update

Next set a host name.

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname nfs.example.com --static

Install NFS Server

You can now use the following command to install NFS server after upgrading your packages and setting up your host name.

sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server

Sample output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libbotan-2-9 libtspi1
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  keyutils libnfsidmap2 libtirpc-common libtirpc3 nfs-common
  rpcbind
Suggested packages:
  open-iscsi watchdog
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  keyutils libnfsidmap2 libtirpc-common libtirpc3 nfs-common
  nfs-kernel-server rpcbind
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 596 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,846 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

Check the status of NFS, which should be up and running.

  sudo systemctl status nfs-server

Sample output

● nfs-server.service - NFS server and services
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nfs-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Fri 2022-04-15 21:43:04 EAT; 12min ago
    Process: 3796 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/exportfs -r (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3797 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/rpc.nfsd $RPCNFSDARGS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 3797 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 16ms

Apr 15 21:43:03 debian systemd[1]: Starting NFS server and services...
Apr 15 21:43:04 debian systemd[1]: Finished NFS server and services.

Setup NFS directory share

We’ll store files that will be shared across the local area network on the NFS directory share. It will be created in the /mnt/directory_name, so let’s create it with the following command.

sudo mkdir /mnt/my_data

Next, assign ownership and permissions.

sudo chown nobody:nogroup /mnt/my_data
sudo chmod -R 777 /mnt/my_data

Configure Exports for client

Allow client access by editing the exports configuration file. Use the following command to open the exports file.

sudo nano /etc/exports

Add client that can access the NFS server using the following line in the config file. Note, you can add several lines with different clients IP to add more clients.

/mnt/my_data CLIENT-IP(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Above command meaning;

rw-Read and Write )
sync-Write changes to disk before applying them)
no_subtree_check-Avoid subtree checking )

Then, using the following command, export the shared directory.

sudo exportfs -a

Allow NFS Share Access on Firewall

Allow NFS with the following command if you’re using a firewall.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.101/24 to any port nfs

Reload the firewall to apply the changes. By default, NFS runs on port 2049.

sudo ufw reload

Check status using the command below.

sudo ufw status

Install and Configure NFS Client

To begin, make sure your client packages are up to date.

sudo apt update

Use the command below to install the NFS client package.

sudo apt install nfs-common

Mounting NFS Share on the Client

The following command will create a directory that will be used to mount the NFS share from the NFS server.

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/client_directory

Mount the remote NFS share directory with the command below after you’ve created the mount directory.

sudo mount SERVER-IP:/mnt/my_data /mnt/client_directory

Test NFS Share

Navigate to your directory share on the NFS server and create a test file.

cd /mnt/my_data
touch nfs_debian.txt

List the content of the mounted share directory on your client system.

ls /mnt/client_directory

In the client directory, you should be able to see the contents of the server.

It’s a warp, you have reached the end of the article. You now know how to Install NFS Server on Debian 11.

Read more about NFS commands in the man page