NFS query

[panks]

I have NFS server on AIX and I want to mount the share on HP-UNIX. I have successfully mounted on most of the hpux server except the three which are having Oracle RAC.I am able to mount on these oracle rac server also but if its not allowinf me to write in that. The OS version is common on all the server, so I dont understand where the problem could be.
One more thing I have checke the patches on the hpux server where I am able to mount with write access, so those server are having the 33655 NFS cummulative patch while the oracle rac one is having 32055

[Anshumali]

What is the error when you try to write?
how was the NFS mounted?

[Ramesh S]

Hi

- Check the permission ( rw,access )on AIX server.. in HP-UX, it is /etc/exports.

- how do you mount at client side?
Manually or AUTOFS ?

Best Regards,
Ramesh S

[panks]

From AIX server it is write permission for everyone. I have successfully mounted on other HP-ux server which are having the 11.23 OS version only.

I am making the entry in FSTAB for mounting. The same I have done with other hpux also.

The error is
mkdir: cannot access .: Permission denied

I am able to other files in the share but not able to create in it.

Thanks

[Dave Olker]

SO.... the client can mount the filesystem but it cannot write in the filesystem, right?

This sure sounds like a permissions problem. Is the user attempting to write the "root" (i.e. uid=0) user on the NFS client? If so, are you sharing/exporting the filesystem on the AIX server for root access from this client? Can non-root users write in the mounted filesystem?

Regards,

Dave

[panks]

I have exported the file system from AIX for the root user only and the non user won't be able to write in the same. As I told previously the same share is writale by other HP-Unix root users.
I have exported the file system and the permission is for the root of the mentioned system.

[Dennis Handly]

>I have exported the file system from AIX for the root user only and the non user won't be able to write in the same.

How did you do that? The only way I know to do that is for each file/directory to be owned by root and writable only by the owner.
I.e. root only is a property of the file and not the filesystem. Unless this is an AIX special?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Looks like a simple permissions issue from here.

In order for non-root users to have write access, they need rights.

In order to get a handle on the situation, the following information would be helpful.

/etc/exports

The permission and ownership of everything exported in /etc/exports on all systems.

Logging and error messaging related to this problem.

SEP

[panks]

Dear All,

Thanks for your response !!
I have checked all the things related to permission and it is ok.

I will once again brief you the scenario:

I have configured the NFS server on AIX server which is using NFSv3 for exporting.
There is parameter while configuring the NFS to allow the hosts for root access, In this parameter I have mentioned the names of all HP-UX servers which are of same OS version.
I don't want to access this NFS share via user, I want to access this with root only.
Now, I have mounted the NFS share on all hpux system and I am able to write in to that share by root user. But I faced problem with 3 unix servers which are having the same version as of other hpux. These servers are able to mount the share as read-only but they are not able to write in the share using root.
The only difference in these hpux systems and other hpux systems are these server are having oracle rac on it and these 3 system are in cluster of rac. The other difference is these systems are having the older nfs patch as compared to other system which I mentioned earlier.
I think this will help you to understand the scenario.

This is my exports file on AIX

/mksysb_image -vers=2:3:4,sec=sys:krb5p:krb5i:krb5:dh:none,rw,root=acnmrkaixm02:acnmrkaixm03:acnmrkaixp02:acnmrkaixp03:acnmrk
aixp04:acnmrkaixp05:acnmrkaixp06:acnmrkaixp07:acnmrkaixp08:acnmrkaixp09:acnmrkaixp10:acnmrkaixp11:acnmrkaixp12:acnmrkaixp13:a
cnmrkaixp14:acnmrkaixp15:mrkrac01:mrkrac02:mrkora01:mrkora02:mrkraq01:mrkraq02:mrkrap01:mrkrap02:mrkrap03:acnmrkracp01

And the systems giving problem are :

mrkrap01:mrkrap02:mrkrap03:acnmrkracp01

While mrkrap01 and acnmrkracp01 are the alias name in dns, I was trying through both the names.

Pls guide !!
Thnkx

[Dennis Handly]

>There is parameter while configuring the NFS to allow the hosts for root access

This just says root is root, not root only.

>I don't want to access this NFS share via user, I want to access this with root only.

How are you enabling this restriction?

>The other difference is these systems are having the older NFS patch as compared to other system

Why don't you eliminate this by installing the same patches?

[panks]

Thanks, for reply.
But it was like when I configured the NFS and mounted on hpux I was not able to write in that, though the filesystem has been exported read-write. So I checked the other parameters in NFS configuration and found this one :

Hosts allowed root

So I entered the name of the one hpux system and then I was able to write in the file system. By the same method then I done for all. But there is problem in three servers which I mentioned.

If you go through the config file which I pasted earlier you will find it shows the root access.

Regarding patch update, it requires reboot and these are the production servers so requires downtime.

Thats why, I was thinking, if I could get the solution without downtime.

Thnks

[Dennis Handly]

>Hosts allowed root
>So I entered the name of the one hpux system and then I was able to write in the file system.

This just allows root as root. Other users maybe allowed to write.

You might try creating a directory under /mksysb_image that allows write for some other user and try on those three.

>By the same method then I done for all. But there is problem in three servers which I mentioned.

I agree, this doesn't make sense that these 3 are singled out, except for the patch version. You are using some fancy smancy sec= options.

>I was thinking if I could get the solution without downtime.

Unfortunately except for your statement of only allowing root access, you seem to have done the right thing. Patching NFS seems the next logical step. Unless you want to change how you export.

[Dave Olker · Accepted solution]

> But it was like when I configured the NFS
> and mounted on hpux I was not able to write
> in that, though the filesystem has been
> exported read-write. So I checked the other
> parameters in NFS configuration and found
> this one :
>
> Hosts allowed root
>
> So I entered the name of the one hpux
> system and then I was able to write in the
> file system.

All the "root" option does is stop the server from converting the UID/GID from 0 to some other number (usually -2). It has no effect on non-root users, at least not on any NFS server I've ever seen. If your HP-UX clients worked after they were put into the root= list but not before this indicates:

1) The NFS requests from the HP-UX clients are originating as the root user (i.e. uid=0)

2) The directory permissions are setup such that uid 0 is allowed to write but uid -2 is not.

> By the same method then I done for all. But
> there is problem in three servers which I
> mentioned.

The most likely explanation for this is hostname resolution. My guess is in the case of the non-working HP-UX systems one of the following is happening:

1) The clients have multiple IP interfaces configured and are sending NFS requests to the server using an IP address that maps to a hostname other than what you've configured in the root= list.

2) The clients are sending the NFS requests from the expected interface but the hostname resolution method used by the NFS server is resolving the IP addresses to the wrong hostname, causing it to not match the root list.

3) Your root= list contains alias names instead of the actual hostname associated with the IP addresses used by the non-working hosts.


You can try collecting a network trace on the NFS server while one of the non-working HP-UX clients is trying to send a WRITE request and examine the request to see what IP address it's originating from. Once you get that IP address, try resolving it to a hostname on the NFS server using whatever hostname resolution mechanism the server currently uses. Verify that the IP address maps to the exact name specified in the root= list.

Hope this helps,

Dave

[panks]

Thanks a lot Dave !! It worked for me.
When I checked in AIX server for the request from hpux client there was not any connection on port 2049, though the client has mounted the share. Then I check in clinet it was having the virtual IP and that IP was making the connection with Server, which my server was not understanding for root=hpuxsystem.

I made the entry in hosts file of AIX server mentioning the virtual IP of the hpux system and it started working.

Thanks to all for their time and support.

Pankaj

[Dennis Handly]

>Thanks to all for their time and support.

If you have gotten the answers you wanted, please read the following about assigning points:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33