NFS Server

[Md. Alamgir Khan]

Hi

Which file on an NFS Server contains a list of clients that currently have the servers NFS system mounted?

thanks
alamgir

[RAC_1]

/etc/rmtab

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi alamgir,


/etc/rmtab contains the list of the remote client.

showmount will list all clients that have remotely mounted a filesystem from host.

hope this helps

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Dave Olker]

Hi Alamgir,

As others have rightly pointed out, the /etc/rmtab is where the rpc.mountd *attempts* to keep track of the clients who currently have mounted filesystems with the server. The command to view the contents of the server's rmtab file is "showmount -a ".

I say "attempts" because the contents of the /etc/rmtab file are rarely accurate. Even the rmtab man page admits this:


WARNINGS
Although the rmtab table is close to the truth, it is not always totally accurate.


The reason why this file is usually out of date is because rpc.mountd adds entries whenever a client mounts a filesystem and it only removes entries when a client sends the server an unmount request. The problem is - what happens if the client doesn't send an unmount request? For example, if a client mounts 3 filesystems from the server and then someone reboots the client, or the client panics, or there is a power outage, or the client is a laptop PC and the user just closes the lid and leaves, etc....

The point is rpc.mountd makes every effort to keep this file up-to-date with a current list of clients but due to circumstances beyond rpc.mountd's control, it isn't always accurate.

Bottom line, I've always told customers to never base any really important SysAdmin decisions on the contents of /etc/rmtab because there's no way to guarantee its accuracy.

Regards,

Dave