Once these packages are installed, switch to the client server. Since this is the first operation that you’re performing with apt in this session, refresh your local package index before the installation: On the host server, install the nfs-kernel-server package, which will allow you to share your directories. You’ll begin by installing the necessary components on each server. Step 1 - Downloading and Installing the Components Throughout this tutorial these IP addresses will be referred to by the placeholders host_ip and client_ip. Other than when initially connecting over SSH, be sure to use the private network address, if available. You will also need to know the IP address for both servers. If you are using DigitalOcean block storage, you can follow the documentation for creating and mounting a volume. The host server should have a block storage volume attached to it. Throughout this tutorial, the server that shares its directories will be referred to as the host and the server that mounts these directories as the client. DigitalOcean droplets created since 2019 will automatically have a private network interface enabled. If you’re using DigitalOcean Droplets for your server and client, you can read more about setting up a private network in our documentation on How to Create a VPC. Each of these should have a non- root user with sudo privileges, a firewall set up with UFW, and private networking, if it’s available to you.įor assistance setting up a non- root user with sudo privileges and a firewall, follow our Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 22.04 guide. This tutorial will follow our best practices for Ubuntu 22.04, but most recent Ubuntu or Debian releases should also work. You will use two servers in this tutorial, with one sharing part of its filesystem with the other. In this guide, you’ll go over how to install the software needed to host an NFS server, configure two NFS mounts on a server and client, and mount and unmount the remote shares. If you are using DigitalOcean’s Block Storage, running an NFS server on an attached droplet is a good solution to expose a block storage volume.

Instead, it needs to be mounted to an existing server and shared from that server. Unlike Object Storage, block storage usually does not provide its own API for direct access. NFS provides a relatively standard and performant way to access remote systems over a network and works well in situations where the shared resources must be accessed regularly.īlock storage is a generic term used to describe network-based storage volumes that are usually offered by hosting providers. This allows you to manage storage space in a different location and write to that space from multiple clients.

NFS, or Network File System, is a distributed file system protocol that allows you to mount remote directories on your server.

How to setup NFS share using FreeNFS