NFS over a Wan

[BradF]

I have a request to setup a NFS share over our Wan. We are in New York and the user is in Germany. They are not using a HP server. They are using PC running NFS software.

Had anyone worked with NFS over a Wan? I would rather not share out a directory on our Production server over the Wan.

I saw an old HP document that said NFS over a Wan is not supported.

What are the implications and problems with doing NFS over a Wan?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Brad,

I'm doing it now though not to PC servers over full T1's. On a casual basis, I've also done it with PC NFS clients. I would say that the main killers to avoid are any sort of diskless workstations where all of their files are NFS mounted and even their swap is over NFS. Those are dogs.

[BradF]

Does HP support or recommend NFS over a Wan at HP-UX 11.0?

[S.K. Chan]

If I'm not mistaken, HP does not support NFS or NIS over WAN. They only support the most "extended-LAN". That rule might have changed already.

We are using BSD Automounter to implement our "cross-regional" NFS needs and it seems to work just fine. However I do not recommend hard mount.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Now that I can't tell you. You probably need to call Support if you want that answer. I can tell you that I have usewd it at 10.20,11.0, and 11.11 without any significant problems and it even works when our T1's failover to ISDN.

I do suggest that you increase the default NFS mount option timeo to about 14, you may need to increase retrans and retry as well. I suggest that you decrease rsize and wsize to 2048.

IU have even gotten NFS to work (though obviously like a dog) over dial-up PPP connections.

Regards, Clay

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Oh Brad, I'm an idiot. When you asked your question, I did a search of the 'Installing and Administering NFS Services' manual and it does not mention WAN's at all; in that sense they are not excluded.

[harry d brown jr]

I'm not sure I'd suggest NFS over a WAN, but if you must, look into using SAMBA, especially if you want PC's running that nasty MS os (notice os is not uppercase).

live free or die

harry

[harry d brown jr]

Clay, you are not an idiot, your fingers just engaged before your brain :-) It must be close to Friday....

This morning out internet circuit was out for 6 hours, and I was having serious forum withdrawal.


live free or die

harry

[BradF]

I am trying to not use NFS over the Wan.

I am looking for definitive information on this issue. The only notes I found were OLD notes from 10.20 that it is not supported.

I would like them to use ftp. They are using an application that wants to use NFS and would need to be changed to use ftp.

I am concerned about activating NFS on my production server over the Wan if the only notes I can find are from 10.20 that it is not supported.

Does anyone know of good documentation on NFS over a Wan?

[Roger Baptiste]

Brad,

This is not a definitive
answer, but i think it can
be done. There is nothing
in the NFS protocol which
suggests it cannot go over
WAN. Once the firewall ports
are opened to allow access,
it should be possible.

But, the question is whether
it is advisable. Security
and speed will be big issues.
Add to the troubles, the PC access at the remote end!

Best of L ;-)
R-