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Configuring NFS access to an SVM

If you do not already have an SVM configured for NFS client access, you must either create and configure a new SVM or configure an existing SVM. Configuring NFS involves opening SVM root volume access, creating an NFS server, creating a LIF, enabling host-name resolution, configuring name services, and if desired, enabling Kerberos security.

  1. Creating an SVM
    If you do not already have at least one SVM in a cluster to provide data access to NFS clients, you must create one.
  2. Verifying that the NFS protocol is enabled on the SVM
    Before you can configure and use NFS on SVMs, you must verify that the protocol is enabled.
  3. Opening the export policy of the SVM root volume
    The default export policy of the SVM root volume must include a rule to allow all clients open access through NFS. Without such a rule, all NFS clients are denied access to the SVM and its volumes.
  4. Creating an NFS server
    After verifying that NFS is licensed on your cluster, you can use the vserver nfs create command to create an NFS server on the SVM and specify the NFS versions it supports.
  5. Creating a LIF
    A LIF is an IP address associated with a physical or logical port. If there is a component failure, a LIF can fail over to or be migrated to a different physical port, thereby continuing to communicate with the network.
  6. Enabling DNS for host-name resolution
    You can use the vserver services name-service dns command to enable DNS on an SVM, and configure it to use DNS for host-name resolution. Host names are resolved using external DNS servers.
  7. Configuring name services
    Depending on the configuration of your storage system, ONTAP needs to be able to look up host, user, group, or netgroup information to provide proper access to clients. You must configure name services to enable ONTAP to access local or external name services to obtain this information.
  8. Using Kerberos with NFS for strong security
    If Kerberos is used in your environment for strong authentication, you need to work with your Kerberos administrator to determine requirements and appropriate storage system configurations, and then enable the SVM as a Kerberos client.