ECS: How to create a basic NFS export and mount it on a client

Summary: How to create a Network File System (NFS) export on the ECS.

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Instructions

Prerequisite:
Gather the following prerequisite information for creating exports on the ECS. This is required to create the correct mappings needed for the export users. Connect to the client host where the NFS export is mounted and gather some basic information for later use in this article.

Information needed from the outputs gathered below:

  • The uid of the Linux host user
  • The gid of the group
  • The group name related to the gid
  • The IP address of the Linux host

Example used in this article:
This is the ID of the user from the Linux host that we are using in this article: uid=500

The group ID is identified from the Linux host: gid=500

The default group name identified from the Linux host: gpadmin

Commands:

# id <Linux User>
# ip addr

Example:

[root@client ~]# id gpadmin
uid=500(gpadmin) gid=500(gpadmin) groups=506(service),500(gpadmin)
[root@client ~]# ip addr
 
9: bond1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP
    link/ether 90:e2:ba:d2:03:bc brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet x.x.x.x/24 brd x.x.x.x scope global bond1

  1. Create the namespace and select the Replication Group on the ECS (optional if one exists):
    Navigation: Manage > namespace
    Namespace

  2. Create a namespace user:


    Note: Later we are mapping this user to the Linux uid gathered from the prerequisite information above.

    Navigation: Manage > Users
    New Object User

  3. Create the file enabled bucket:


    Note: In this example, the user was created for the Bucket Owner and usually that the user can be any user for the namespace.

    Navigation: Manage > Buckets
    Create the file enabled bucket
     
    Note: You need the Linux default group name from the prerequisite information gathered at the beginning of this article. This must match exactly.
     

    Linux default group name

    1. Click Next > to continue the bucket creation.
    2. Click File System to On and enter the Default Bucket Group information from the prerequisite, this point select granting permissions for the bucket.
  4. Click Next > Click Save to complete the bucket creation.
    complete the bucket creation

  5. Create the "export" click New Export.

    Navigation: Manage > File
    Create the export click

  6. Select the namespace and Bucket.
    Selecting Namespace and Bucket

  7. Click Add under Export Host Options choosing Permissions, Write Transfer Policy, Authentication, and Mounting Directories Allow options:
Note: Under the host export with the RootSquash field, specify the ECS object username that used to map incoming root user (uid=0). If left blank, the root user is squashed to a non-existent user preventing any read or writes unless a User Mapping is created for uid=0.
 

Add export host

  1. Map Default Group set for the file system bucket set in Step 3 to the gid identified in the prerequisites and map the user created in Step 2 to the prerequisites user uid. You can repeat these steps for additional users must access for access to the export.


    Note: The mapping enables ECS to treat an ECS object user and an NFS user as the same user but with two sets of credentials, one to access ECS using NFS, and one to access the ECS using the object protocols. Because the accounts are mapped, files written by an NFS user are accessible as objects by the mapped object user and objects written by the object users are accessible as files by the NFS user. The permissions associated with the file or object are based on a mapping between POSIX and object protocol Access Control Lists (ACL) privileges.

    Group Example:
    Group Example

    User Example:


    Note: The uid from the prerequisite is mapped to the ECS namespace user created in Step 2.
     

    User Example

    Example of both User and Group Mapping:

    Example of both User and Group Mapping
  2. On the client system where you are mounting the export, we must check to see if the export is available.

Command:

# showmount -e <IP Address of the ECS>

Example:

[root@client ~]# showmount -e x.x.x.x
Export list for x.x.x.x:
/nfsnamespace/nfsbucket             x.x.x.x
  1. Create the mount point on the local Linux host.

Commands:

# mkdir <Path to new mount point>
# ls -lart <Path to new mount point>

Example:

[root@client ~]# mkdir /tmp/mnt
[root@client ~]# ls -lart /tmp/mnt
total 8
drwx------  2 gpadmin root 4096 Oct 22 18:08 .
drwxrwxrwt. 4 root    root 4096 Oct 24 12:34 ..
  1. Mount the export to your Linux host and confirm that the export is mounted.
Note: It is important that you specify -o "vers=3" because the ECS only supports version 3.

Command:

# mount -t nfs -o "vers=3,nolock,rsize=524288,wsize=524288" <ECS IP Addres> <Local Mount Point>
# mount

Example:

[root@client ~]# mount -t nfs -o "vers=3,nolock,rsize=524288,wsize=524288" x.x.x.x:/nfsnamespace/nfsbucket/ /tmp/mnt
[root@client ~]# mount
 
x.x.x.x:/nfsnamespace/nfsbucket/ on /tmp/mnt type nfs (rw,vers=3,nolock,rsize=524288,wsize=524288,addr=x.x.x.x)

  1. Validate files can be created and accessed by the same mount point:

    Example:

[gpadmin@client ~]$ cd /tmp/mnt
[gpadmin@client mnt]$ touch file2
[gpadmin@client mnt]$ ls -lart
total 0
-rw------- 1 gpadmin gpadmin 0 Apr 11 17:24 file1
-rw------- 1 gpadmin gpadmin 0 Apr 11 17:25 file2

Additional Information

Related NFS articles:

Affected Products

ECS Appliance Gen 3

Products

ECS Appliance Gen 1, ECS Appliance Gen 2, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen3 EX300, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen3 EX3000, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen1 U-Series, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen2 C-Series, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen2 D-Series , ECS Appliance Hardware Gen2 U-Series, ECS Appliance Hardware Gen3 EX500, ECS Appliance Hardware Series, ECS Appliance Software with Encryption, ECS Appliance Software without Encryption ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000019857
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 09 Oct 2025
Version:  10
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