Abstract
The Network File System service allows you to easily export directories of your computer to others through the network. Through NFS, you can share data among several users. This type of sharing is really easier to set up than Samba, but it is only used on GNU/Linux and UNIX systems. NFS is very insecure and must be used only in a secure local network.
To configure your NFS Exports system using Webmin, you have to install the nfs-utils and nfs-utils-clients packages.
The NFS Exports configuration button is in the System index. You just have to click on the Add a new export link and the configuration page will open.
This module is very simple to use because you can have a lot of explanations about each parameter. Simply click on a parameter you do not understand and a pop-up will answer your question.
Once in the Create Export page, you just have to write the directory name you want to allow access from other computers. If you are not sure of the name of the directory you want to export, you can click on the icon with three dots and you will be able to browse your local system tree.
By default, the export is accessible to Everyone, this should be changed to the sub-network you actually use (for example: 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or a netgroup.
You can restrict a little more the access to your exported directories. For example, you can choose the ID that you want to trust or not, you can also choose to allow to read or read and write in your directories.
To configure your client computer (192.168.50.92 in our example), you have to log on it and use the Disk and Network Filesystems button in the System index.
On a UNIX system, making a filesystem or a directory accessible is called “mounting” this remote directory. A mount point is the local directory where the remote one is going to be accessible.
To mount the /home/myhome/sharing_dir exported directory, you need to add a new entry in the Disk and Network File System icon of your system. To do so, you must Add a mount by selecting the Network Filesystem (nfs) type.
In this example, we choose to mount the exported directory in /mnt/disk. This means you will be able to browse the /home/myhome/sharing_dir subdirectories of the 192.168.50.92 remote server using your preferred file manager in the /mnt/disk local directory.
If you select Save and mount at boot, this remote directory will be mounted each time you reboot. The server must be accessible each time you boot. If not, you will get warning messages.