NFSv4 (Network File System) implementation for GNU/Linux is currently being developed by CITI (University of Michigan). Bull contributes to the continuous testing activity of CITI releases and administration on Linux of this novel protocol.
As for our contribution to NFSv4 administration, modules for Webmin (web-based interface for system administration) and Nagios (a host, service and network monitoring program) were developed by Frederic Jolly in 2004.
Detailled documentations for those two plugins are now available. We also describe what has been fixed and enhanced in those modules and we provide the reviewed versions.
Also, we have developed a new NFSv4 provider for SBLIM(based on CIM/WBEM).
Our tutorials assume that NFSv4 is installed on your hosts (clients and servers), and they deal only with the administration of an NFSv4 network on Linux.
Here are the links to all of our papers about NFSv4 administration :
2. Administration of NFSv4 on Linux
This paper defines needs and goals of NFSv4 Administration [PDF].
This document covers :
- Administration requirements from different points of view
- Commands and files used to manage and monitor NFSv4
- Server administration and monitoring tasks
- Client administration and monitoring tasks
- Additional features (Security, ID mapping, Migration and Replication capabilities, and ACLs)
3. Administration with Webmin
Webmin (htp://www.webmin.com) is a web-based interface for system administration. A NFSv4 module was provided by Bull in 2004.
Our paper describes NFSv4 module for Webmin [PDF] : it covers current features and what has been enhanced in our new version. Our changes are integrated to the latest official release of Webmin.
Thedocument includes :
- Managing NFSv4 exported directories with Webmin
- Managing mounted file systems with Webmin
- User interface and help
4. Monitoring with Nagios
Nagios (http://www.nagios.org) is an open source host,service and network monitoring program widely used by companies and organizations. It allows to efficiently monitor networks and systems. Basically, Nagios gives a synthetic view of each equipment state (thanks to colors, maps,...) and it provides an alarm mechanism to notify of outages by e-mail, pager or any user-defined method.
Bull has provided a plugin in 2004 dedicated to NFSv4 monitoring on servers and clients. You can download it here :
It is also available on
Nagios Exchange.
- We provide a tutorial to quickly install Nagios and to set up a basic configuration [PDF].
- Then follow our guidelines to set up NRPE plugin (Network Remote Plugin Executor) needed by NFSv4 plugin [PDF].
- Here is our tutorial to install and configure "Check RPC" and "Check NFS4" plugins that allows to monitor NFSv4 clients and servers with Nagios [PDF].
We have also written a paper to describe current features included in NFSv4 and RPC plugins for Nagios and what could be enhanced [PDF].
The latter covers :
- Evaluation of "Check RPC" module
- Evaluation of "Check NFS4" module
- Proposals to enhance NFSv4 monitoring in Nagios
5. SBLIM provider for NFSv4 (CIM/WBEM)
We evaluated SBLIM's NFSv4 provider and worked in cooperation with SBLIM team to write a specification of a new provider. Then, we developed and tested a new NFSv4 provider. Our main goals were :
- To redesign the CIM schema and hopefully to make it normalized (currently, schema is different in Sun, AIX, Linux, HP-UX...). Indeed, DMTF's NFS schema does not cover current administration needs.
- "Get" methods are implemented (and work well), but we would like to add "Set" methods and probably alarms.
- To update the parser used to extract NFSv4 information so as to support the current /etc/exports syntax. We also writed a formal syntax with EBN rules.
- To add daemons and services monitoring. Our new provider allows to monitor and start/stop/restart NFSv4-related services (nfs, gss, svcgss, idmap) and to retrieve information about the running processes.
