Connecting HP-UX with AIX file systems via NFS

[Kevin Bingham]

Hi,

Does anyone have a "complete" task list for everything that is required to enable/setup visibility between HP-UX and AIX filesystems via NFS,

Thanks in advance.

Regards
Kevin

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Kevin,

We have done some cross platform NFS mounts and they have not given us any problems. Now we had to do anything specific to enable the nfs mount.

Just export / share the filesystems / directory from the nfs server and then mount it using the regular mount command on the nfs client. Look at the exportfs command on the two servers and that should tell you what configuration files are involved. check the documentation for the os on how to enable nfs server / client for that OS.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Dave Olker]

Hi Kevin,

Can you be a little more specific about what configuration you're hoping to use. Will the HP-UX system be the NFS client or server? Will the AIX system be the NFS client or server? Which filesystems will the server export?

It's impossible to provide a task list without knowing at least these three things.

Regards,

Dave

[Mark Greene_1]

You have to have the rpc services enabled on both systems, and the rpc processes (rpcd, statd, lockd, mountd, and rpcbind) running in addition to nfsd.

showmount -e will display what filesystems are setup for export. See the man page for /etc/exports on both systems for more details.

mark

[Kevin Bingham]

Hi,

I was hoping to be able to get bi-directional NFS connections. E.g. HP-UX machine, hp2 has FS /apps2, and AIX machine aix1 has FS /apps, what I would like is for hp2 to be able to read/write to aix1:/apps and for aix1 to be able to read/write to hp2/apps2

Hope this clarifies my needs, please give lots of detail...

Regards
Kevin

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Kevin,

If you have a contract with hp, you can open this doc that has info on how to setup a hp-ux nfs serve

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/iv/docDisplay.do?docId=prodITRC/DE_SW_UX_swrec_EN_01_E/NetServices.pdf

Use this link to check on how to configure nfs server / client on aix side.

http://www.interex.org/tech/9000/Tech/aix_hpux_interop_v2/chap12_nfs.html

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Dave Olker]

Hi Kevin,

Is NFS enabled on either of these systems right now or do you need help even enabling the NFS subsystems? Also, what version of HP-UX and AIX are these systems running?

On HP-UX, since you're wanting to use the system as both an NFS client and a server, you'd want to make sure the following variables are set in the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file:

NFS_CLIENT=1
NFS_SERVER=1
NUM_NFSD=16
NUM_NFSIOD=16

Once these values are set, you can issue the commands:

# /sbin/init.d/nfs.client start
# /sbin/init.d/nfs.server start

You should configure the following entry in the /etc/exports file on the HP system:

/apps2 -access=aix1

Then issue the command:

# exportfs -av

You should ensure that all of the RPC daemons are running on the HP-UX system, which you can do with:

# rpcinfo -p

This should return entries for nfsd, mountd, lockd, statd, and others. On the AIX system you would then issue the command:

# mkdir /apps2
# mount hp2:/apps2 /apps2

If this doesn't work then please list the error message you receive. As for configuring the AIX system as an NFS client/server, I'd need to know which version of AIX it is running to give you a list of commands to issue.

Let me know if you're at least able to get the HP system working as an NFS client and server. Then we can work on the AIX system.

Regards,

Dave

[Mark Greene_1]

Kevin,

Yes, you can mount file systems from each box on the other. You can setup the file systems to export on the HP Box via SAM and on the AIX box via smit.

On the HP system via sam, it's Disks and File Systems, File Systems, Actions (in the menu), Add Remote File System, Using NFS, and then just follow the prompts.

On the AIX system via smit, it's System Storage Management, File Systems, Add/Change/Show, Network File Systems, Network File System, and then you'll have to do all the steps for the first two options (Configure NFS on This System and Add a Directory to Exports List) and then the fifth option (Add a File System for Mounting).

Good luck,
mark

[Kevin Bingham]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the detailed instructions. To answer your questions, the HP machine is L1000 running 11.11, and AIX is a p615 running 5.1.

I managed to successfully follow your instructions to get the AIX machine to be able to "see" hp2, but obviously there is a mismatch between user and group definitions since I see numerics in the appropriate fields of the "ls -l" output. Is this simply a case of making uid and gid numbers correspond? or should I add a user to hp2 with the sam uid as the aix1 user, and visa-versa? and then grant these uid's access tot he appropriate groups on each machine?

looking forward to getting the AIX stuff visible on hp2.

Regards
Kevin

[Kevin Bingham]

Hi Mark,

I get a "Permission denied" message in SAM when trying to add the AIX file system.

Any ideas?

Regards
Kevin

[Mark Greene_1]

Regarding the "permission denied", be sure you are running SAM as root. On the AIX box, run "showmount -e" to verify that the file systems in question are being exported properly.

mark

[Kevin Bingham]

I get this...

{root} /home/root> showmount -e
export list for AIX1:
/apps hp1,hp2
{root} /home/root>

[Dave Olker]

Hi Kevin,

When you say the AIX system can "see" the hp2 does this mean the AIX system as an NFS client can mount the filesystems from the hp2 server? I assume this is what you mean since the "ls -l" output I assume to be in the NFS mounted filesystem.

If you see numerics in the uid/gid fields this does mean that the CLIENT system does not know how to map the uid/gids in the NFS filesystem to user names and group names. You can use a name service like NIS or LDAP to have all systems in your network see the same uid/gid database and this would allow the client to successfully map the numbers to names. If you don't want to use a name service, you could add the HP users to the AIX system and vice versa.

You should be careful to ensure that there are no duplicate users on these systems being assigned different uid/gid numbers. In other words, user "bob" on the AIX system should not be assigned uid 1001 if uid 1001 on the HP system is already assigned to user "ted".

Now you are saying you need help getting the HP-UX client to successfully mount filesystems from the AIX system? If you do this:

# mkdir /aix_nfs
# mount aix1:/apps /aix_nfs

Do you get an error message? If so, what message do you get?

Regards,

Dave

[Kevin Bingham]

Hi Dave

From aix1 it seems I have read access to the hp2 /apps2 directory, but when I try your latest commands, I get the following:

{root} /homeroot> ls /
.profile aix_apps bin csedb2 fonts.alias home lost+found sbin tmp_mnt
.sw apps ca_lic dev fonts.dir homeroot net stand usr
aix1_apps apps2 cdrom etc fsadm lib opt tmp var
{root} /homeroot> mount aix1:/apps /aix_apps
Permission denied
{root} /homeroot> bdf
Filesystem kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vg00/lvol3 204800 72560 131272 36% /
/dev/vg00/lvol1 295024 101920 163600 38% /stand
/dev/vg00/lvol8 1560576 921512 639064 59% /var
/dev/vg00/lvol7 2101248 1034728 1059456 49% /usr
/dev/vg00/lvol4 204800 3136 200792 2% /tmp
/dev/vg00/lvol6 1527808 1113432 411208 73% /opt
/dev/vg01/lvol2 1536000 766869 721104 52% /csedb2
hp1:/apps 7012880 5880752 430840 93% /apps
/dev/vg01/lvol1 9072640 7592368 1388323 85% /apps2
/dev/vg00/lvol5 204800 15872 187544 8% /home
hp2:/cdrom 2457600 2457600 0 100% /cdrom
{root} /homeroot>

[Dave Olker · Accepted solution]

Hi Kevin,

________________________________________

{root} /homeroot> mount aix1:/apps /aix_apps
Permission denied
________________________________________


This typically indicates that the NFS server is rejecting the NFS client's mount request because it doesn't believe the client is allowed to access the filesystem in question.

I know from a previous post of yours that the /apps filesystem is exported for "hp1,hp2". There could be any number of problems here, but the most likely is that the NFS server isn't resolving the IP address of the client's mount request properly and matching the "hp1" hostname.

Does hp1 have more than 1 network interface? Try issuing the command:

# netstat -in

on the HP-UX client and see if more than one network interface is configured. If so, the problem could be that the mount request is arriving on the AIX system via a different LAN interface than what "hp1" resolves to. If that is the case, I'd try exporting the filesystem on the AIX system using all of the IP addresses found on hp1. Also, using IP addresses instead of hostnames will hopefully avoid any name resolution confusion on the part of the AIX box.

Let me know if exporting the filesystem on the AIX system using the IP addresses of the network interfaces on hp1 works. If not, please issue the following command on hp1:

# showmount -e aix1

and give me the output.

Regards,

Dave

[Kevin Bingham]

Thanks Dave,

My aix1 /etc/hosts file had an invalid IP address for hp2. Now I get to see hp2 from aix1 and visa versa.


Thanks!