Preface

The NFS Administration Guide presents the administrative tasks required for the successful operation of the NFS^TM distributed file system. This resource-sharing product enables you to share files and directories among a number of computers on a network.

Also included in this manual is how to set up and use autofs (formerly called the automounter) to automatically mount and unmount NFS file systems.

This book is organized into explanatory background material and task-oriented instructions.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for the system administrator whose responsibilities include setting up and maintaining NFS systems. Though much of the book is directed toward the experienced system administrator, it also contains information useful to novice administrators and other readers who are new to the Solaris^TM platform.

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1, Solaris NFS Environment provides an overview of the Solaris NFS environment and autofs.

Chapter 2, NFS Administration provides information on how to set up NFS servers with NIS or NIS+ as your name service.

Chapter 3, NFS Reference presents background information on the security features of the NFS service as well as fundamental procedures for setting up and maintaining NFS security.

Chapter 4, Autofs Administration describes problems that might occur on machines using NFS services. It contains procedures for tracking NFS problems. Background and reference sections are also included.

Chapter 5, About Autofs provides procedures for setting up and using autofs. It also includes background, reference, and troubleshooting sections.

Appendix A, NFS Tunables lists several parameters that you can change to improve the NFS service. It includes instructions for making these changes.

Related Books

This is a list of related documentation that is refered to in this book.

Ordering Sun Documents

The SunDocs^SM program provides more than 250 manuals from Sun Microsystems, Inc. If you live in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Japan, you can purchase documentation sets or individual manuals using this program.

For a list of documents and how to order them, see the catalog section of SunExpress^TM Internet site at http://www.sun.com/sunexpress.

What Typographic Changes Mean

Table P-1 describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-1 Typographic Conventions


Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% You have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`AaBbCc123`	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

Table P-2 shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P-2 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	`machine_name%`
C shell superuser prompt	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	`#`