[besson3c]

Anybody know how to write to NFS volumes in Panther? I can mount volumes, but they are read only. The same volume mounts as r/w within FreeBSD.

I did a search of these forums and found stuff about NIS, but this thread was very dated. Does this stuff still apply to Panther?

Also, does it make sense to setup NetInfo to automount NFS shares if I'm on a laptop that is not always connected to the internet? I'd be nice to have a constant connection my mount, but I don't want the Finder locked up while it looks for the mount point. Is NetInfo savvy in this regard?

[utidjian]

Originally posted by besson3c:
Anybody know how to write to NFS volumes in Panther? I can mount volumes, but they are read only. The same volume mounts as r/w within FreeBSD.

There may be several issues involved here:

1. What OS is the *server* running? Also what version? Linux, Solaris, *BSD, Mac OS X?

2. As seems so common these days... it is quite likely that it is a permissions and ownership issue. Open the terminal app, then do an ls -l on the NFS share and its contents. Are the owner and group listings numerical? are they a name you recognize? If not you will have to sync the owner and group for the share with your laptop.

3. There are some issues with NFS servers other than Mac OS X Server v10.3.x and with using Mac OS X 'Panther' as an NFS server. This is because Panther is based on development branch of FreeBSD (read "beta") and NFS file locking is "new" to FreeBSD. If you have NFSLOCKS=-AUTOMATIC- in your /etc/hostconfig file on the client side (your laptop) there can be problems with communicating with some NFS servers. I doubt this is your problem though since you can mount the share and read it.

I did a search of these forums and found stuff about NIS, but this thread was very dated. Does this stuff still apply to Panther?

NIS is an old network database similar to Netinfo, Active Directory, LDAP, OpenLDAP, eDirectory, NDS. NIS makes it very easy to sync up userids and groupids over a network. Once setup correctly on the server side it is trivial to add clients to the network and have all the permissions mapped correctly across all clients. In Linux and Solaris it is very easy to setup an NIS server. I don't know about BSDs. It may not be possible in Mac OS X.

Mac OS X can, however, be an NIS client... and that is how I set up all of my Mac clients with Linux as the server.

There are advantages and disadvantages to NIS.

The advantages are it is very easy to set up, and very easy to maintain. Add a user in one place and they can instantly log in to any of the client machines. It works cross platform with all variants of Unix and Linux I have ever tried it with.

The disadvantages are Windows doesn't work with it without third party software. There are security issues with using it on large "untrusted" networks. One can make it difficult for an ordinary cracker but a knowledgeable and determined cracker can get a hold of the /etc/passwd file rather easily. (They can also get the passwd file via Netinfo very easily.)

Also, does it make sense to setup NetInfo to automount NFS shares if I'm on a laptop that is not always connected to the internet? I'd be nice to have a constant connection my mount, but I don't want the Finder locked up while it looks for the mount point. Is NetInfo savvy in this regard?

Well if you primarily use your laptop at home or in the office then it shouldn't really matter. When you are on the road you shouldn't be able to connect to an NFS share from just anywhere. NFS shares MUST be fully firewalled from the internet. As long as you don't read or write to the share it shouldn't bother the Finder... but then the Finder does some strange things sometimes.

Netinfo is going away from Mac OS X. It is still there for backwards compatibility and will be for some time. Apple is moving towards Open Directory which is based on OpenLDAP.... mainly because nobody but NeXT and Mac OS X "speaks" Netinfo... almost everybody speaks some form of LDAP.

One thing that is kinda cool when using Netinfo and NIS is that when you are connected to the NIS/NFS servers on the LAN the system gets its information from the those servers. When disconnected it uses the local Netinfo database and everyhting works as expected. This is all transparent to the user.

For more up to date info on NIS/NFS + Mac OS X see:
http://www.bresink.de/osx/nis.html

[besson3c]

Thanks very much for your reply, sorry for my late response!

Is there anyway to force authentication when mounting NFS volumes? Can Windows mount NFS shares, or is Windows connectivity on completely separate networks restricted to Samba?

What I'm trying to find is a good fast way to mount my volumes from both OS X and Windows. I've setup Netatalk, but I'm wondering if NFS is going to be faster...

Thanks again for your help!

[besson3c]

Originally posted by utidjian:
[B]There may be several issues involved here:

3. There are some issues with NFS servers other than Mac OS X Server v10.3.x and with using Mac OS X 'Panther' as an NFS server. This is because Panther is based on development branch of FreeBSD (read "beta") and NFS file locking is "new" to FreeBSD. If you have NFSLOCKS=-AUTOMATIC- in your /etc/hostconfig file on the client side (your laptop) there can be problems with communicating with some NFS servers. I doubt this is your problem though since you can mount the share and read it.

What should NFSLOCKS be set to? I don't have this line within my hostconfig at all.

I've experienced a couple of hard freezes while having NFS volumes mounted. Have you heard of this problem, and does it have a workaround?

[utidjian]

Originally posted by besson3c:
What should NFSLOCKS be set to? I don't have this line within my hostconfig at all.

I've experienced a couple of hard freezes while having NFS volumes mounted. Have you heard of this problem, and does it have a workaround?

NFSLOCKS should be set to NO. You should add this line even if you don't have it set to anything:

NFSLOCKS=-NO-

in the /etc/hostconfig file.

Yes, I have experienced hard locks and lockups of iApps. Especially, iChat, Safari, iDVD, iTunes... and so on. Setting NFSLOCKS=-NO- fixed it for me.

What operating system are you using for the NFS server? What version of NFS?

A couple of other things... I have heard of problems with connecting to an NFS server of any type if the client is using AirPort to connect to the network. I do not use AirPort or any kind of WiFi for my Mac OS X NFS clients.

[utidjian]

Originally posted by besson3c:
Is there anyway to force authentication when mounting NFS volumes?

Not really. This is one of the downsides of using NFS. NFS "trusts the client machine". Of course, it is not quite that simple. You can make it so an NFS volume is only mounted when a particular user logs on ("authenticates") and will only mount, say, that users home directory and assigned shares. This is done via automount and can be quite complicated to set up. More on that in the link I gave earlier.

Can Windows mount NFS shares, or is Windows connectivity on completely separate networks restricted to Samba?

One can use Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX, but I have no experience with how well this works. According to:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...c/sfuintro.asp
Windows can be used as an NFS client.

Windows does not need to be on a "completely separate" network in order to use Samba. I share the exact same volumes to Windows clients from my servers via Samba as I do NFS... over the same network. One can (I do) share the same volumes to Mac OS < X, Mac OS X, Unix (NFS), Windows, and Linux via NFS, Samba, and netatalk (AppleTalk) all on the same network. I have been doing this for 6 years using Linux as the server with very few problems. Interestingly enough, my most "difficult" client lately has been Mac OS X 'Panther'.

What I'm trying to find is a good fast way to mount my volumes from both OS X and Windows. I've setup Netatalk, but I'm wondering if NFS is going to be faster...

If you are only trying to share between Windows and Mac OS X then I would go with Samba (because it seems simplest). Samba is pretty fast. Most protocols are fast enough over a small fast network. It really depends on what you need to do, the size and numbers of files in typical shares, the type of network, the number of connecting clients.

In your situation I would experiment with all possible approaches and choose the one that gives you the best performance, reliability and security. You also have to factor in the ease with which you can maintain and configure it ;-). AFAIK Mac OS X can be both a Samba server and client as can Windows.