NFS mounting problems.

[Eric Ladner]

On one server, /etc/exports has "/tmp/e -rw=esppt.somedomain.com". The FDQN of the other server is in the hosts file on the first server (i.e. IP FDQN ALIAS).

On the second server, AutoFS is running and won't mount the directory. Even trying a "mount -F nfs server1:/tmp/e /tmp/test" results in "nfs mount: mount_nfs: mount: /tmp/test: No such file or directory" which seems a little odd - /tmp/test definitly exists on the second server. The second server has the FDQN of the first server in the hosts file.

All IP addresses and hosts names are verifiable via nslookup and ping.

I'm not sure how, but some combination of messing with the hosts file and different mount options (i.e. mount vs. cd /net/server1) results in a Permission Denied, rather than the "mount directory not found".

I've been through about 20 threads on here and haven't found a resolution.

Isn't there something about NFS not being able to mount a host name longer than 30 characters or something? (My actual host name is longer than 30 characters).

[Steven E. Protter]

Short term test.

chmod 777 the directory and see if that makes a difference.

If not change perms back.

Next, consider checking that DNS resolution is working right. That could cause this problem.

You might get more info in the syslog.log file to help diagnose.

SEP

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Eric,

Try this in /etc/exportfs,

/tmp/e -o rw=esppt.somedomain.com

Do "showmount -e your_nfs_server_name" to check if the filesystem is being exported.

do "showmount -a" on the nfs server to check if it got mounted.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Eric Ladner]

Steven.. Chmod 777 made no difference. DNS resolution is working fine, forwards and backwards. Currently there are entries in /etc/hosts that duplicate the DNS entries, still nslookups work forwards and backwards and the rw parameter in /etc/exports matches fine. Syslog doesn't show ANYTHING during any of this stuff on the server. I have the automounter tracing turned on on the client and it just says stuff about "Couldn't mountjavascript:postAnswerSubmit('submit');
submit blah bhah".

Sanjay.. -o caused exportfs to exit with an error message "unknown option: o". showmount -e server1 works and shows the correct file systmes on the server and the client!

[Eric Ladner]

I think I found the fix and it did turn out to be a name resolution problem.

internally, the site where the client is is known as one domain name and it's known by another externally. The server was referencing the external name, but needed to know the internal name. An entry in the hosts file fixed the problem. Post another message Steven and I'll shoot you some more points.

Thanks!

Eric

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Eric,

I think there was a typo mistake in my earlier post,

try this,

/tmp/e - rw=esppt.somedomain.com

There is a space betweeb "-" and "rw".

Hope this helps.

Regds