PowerScale OneFS 9.8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

NFS aliases

You can create and manage aliases as shortcuts for directory path names in OneFS. If those path names are defined as NFS exports, NFS clients can specify the aliases as NFS mount points.

NFS aliases are designed to give functional parity with SMB share names within the context of NFS. Each alias maps a unique name to a path on the file system. NFS clients can then use the alias name in place of the path when mounting.

Aliases must be formed as top-level Unix path names, having a single forward slash followed by name. For example, you could create an alias named /q4 that maps to /ifs/data/finance/accounting/winter2015 (a path in OneFS). An NFS client could mount that directory through either of:

mount cluster_ip:/q4

mount cluster_ip:/ifs/data/finance/accounting/winter2015

Aliases and exports are completely independent. You can create an alias without associating it with an NFS export. Similarly, an NFS export does not require an alias.

Each alias must point to a valid path on the file system. While this path is absolute, it must point to a location beneath the zone root (/ifs on the System zone). If the alias points to a path that does not exist on the file system, any client trying to mount the alias would be denied in the same way as attempting to mount an invalid full pathname.

NFS aliases are zone-aware. By default, an alias applies to the client's current access zone. To change this, you can specify an alternative access zone as part of creating or modifying an alias.

Each alias can only be used by clients on that zone, and can only apply to paths below the zone root. Alias names are unique per zone, but the same name can be used in different zones—for example, /home.

When you create an alias in the web administration interface, the alias list displays the status of the alias. Similarly, using the --check option of the isi nfs aliases command, you can check the status of an NFS alias (status can be: good, illegal path, name conflict, not exported, or path not found).