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Computer Networks (CITS3230) - Lecture 11
 
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Network-based File Systems

Just as there are differing philosophies about the 'correct' interprocess communication links (Berkeley's sockets, AT&T's streams, the Transport Layer Interface (TLI)), there are differing opinions about the 'correct' network-based file system design.

The Network File System (NFS)

Released by Sun Microsystems in 1984, the Sun Network Filesystem (NFS) protocol provides transparent remote access to shared filesystems over (typically) local area networks.

NFS is well supported on all modern operating systems, including UNix, Linux, MS-DOS (with PC-NFS) and Microsoft Windows ('95 onwards), and Apple's OS-X.

The NFS protocol is designed to be machine, operating system, network architecture, and transport protocol independent. This independence is achieved through the use of Remote Procedure Call (RPC - RFC1057) primitives built on top of an External Data Representation (XDR - RFC1014).

The supporting mount protocol allows a server host to grant remote access privileges to a restricted set of client hosts.

References for NFS:

  • [RFCs] Request for Comments 1014 (XDR), 1057 (RPC) and 1094 (NFS).
  • [files] The RPC specification in /usr/include/rpcsvc/nfs_prot.x
  • [manuals] nfs(5), exports(5), mount(8), mountd(8), nfsd(8)

Computer Networks (CITS3230), Lecture 11, p1, 26th May 2008.