Problems with HP-UX 11 client mounting NFS filesystem

[Andrew Cunningham]

I am trying to mount a NFS filesystem from a HP-UX 11.0 workstation. We are running NIS. Other HP-UX 11.0 WS are able to mount this NFS filesystem

- error message: "permission denied"
- tried from sam and from commmand line: 'mount hostname:/original_path /target_path'
- /etc/exports file updated on NFS server
- NFS server accessible through rlogin
- NIS up and running
- all other network access working fine
- hostname/IP address of NFS server added in hosts file of local w/s

Driving me loopy!

Andrew

[Michael Steele_2]

Well the problem probably exists in the NFS server and may be related to either /etc/exports so check here first. Especially if the client hostname has changed. Make sure the new hostname has been added to the /etc/exports.

Also verify /etc/resolv.conf on the work station and make sure it looks like the workstations. Use 'nslookup' from the server and the client with both hostnames and ip to make sure. Use the FQDN.

# nslookup server
# nslookup client
# nslookup client_ip
# nslookup server_ip

Use showmount -e and exportfs -a and exportfs -ua.

[T G Manikandan]

Permission denied message would be because of

1.The file system is not shared properly.

you can do a
#exportfs -a
or
re-start nfs services
/sbin/init.d/nfs.server stop
/sbin/init.d/nfs.server start

2.check for the permissions of the directory you have shared.
The permissions should be atleast 755.

Try also giving 777 and check mounting at the client
3.check whether you have shared the file system read only or you are nfs mounting a ro CD.Then use

-o ro option during the mount of the nfs file system on the client.

Revert

[T G Manikandan]

you can still narrow down the problem with mounting the nfs shared file system on the nfs server itself with a different mount point.

Before doing that make sure nfs client services are started
/sbin/init.d/nfs.client start

[T G Manikandan]

If the other WS is able to mount the same file system then

check the exports file for the access to this workstation

check the mount options

[PVR]

try restarting nfs.client script in the client
#/sbin/init.d/nfs.client stop
#/sbin/init.d/nfs.client start

Pl check whether the access is limited to a few WS only

/path -access=ws1. In this case /path can be mounted only by Ws1.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Thanks for all the great things to try. The help in this forum is fantastic.
When I solve it ( it's not fixed yet) , I will post what worked.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Andrew,

If you don't have this as an entry in /etc/fstab then you need to tell the mount command the FS type:

mount -F nfs host:/path/to/dir /mnt_dir

Then if it's exported with options (ro?) those have to be added as well. And as stated if the export has restrictions - they must be honored.

Also check the perms on the dir being exported & that both hosts are resolvable by name & IP.

HTH,
Jeff

[Andrew Cunningham]

Fixed!
The solution turned out to be
- Our in-house DNS server did not have the "reverse" DNS records for the problem client
- In a couple of places we were not using FQDN

Thanks to all.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi (again) Andrew,

Glad you resolved (pun intended) this & that I could help.

Yep - DNS is a necessary evil for a lot of things. If all the t's aren't crossed (fwd resolution) & i's dotted (reverse res) then lots of things don't seem to work correctly.
In this case NFS....

Cheers,
Jeff

[Suresh Patoria]

Hi,

I want to check first on server side

-->check local directory permission
-->check the exported directory permission

then client side

--> check the mounting option
what option u r using to mount from the server to local

Thanx