rpc.mountd(8)		    System Manager's Manual		 rpc.mountd(8)



NAME
       rpc.mountd - NFS mount daemon

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd [options]

DESCRIPTION
       The  rpc.mountd daemon implements the server side of the NFS MOUNT pro-
       tocol, an NFS side protocol used by NFS version	2  [RFC1094]  and  NFS
       version 3 [RFC1813].

       An NFS server maintains a table of local physical file systems that are
       accessible to NFS clients.  Each file system in this table is  referred
       to as an exported file system, or export, for short.

       Each  file  system  in  the  export  table  has an access control list.
       rpc.mountd uses these access control lists to determine whether an  NFS
       client  is permitted to access a given file system.  For details on how
       to manage your NFS  server's  export  table,  see  the  exports(5)  and
       exportfs(8) man pages.

   Mounting exported NFS File Systems
       The  NFS	 MOUNT protocol has several procedures.	 The most important of
       these are MNT (mount an export) and UMNT (unmount an export).

       A MNT request has two arguments: an explicit argument that contains the
       pathname	 of  the  root	directory  of the export to be mounted, and an
       implicit argument that is the sender's IP address.

       When receiving a MNT request from an NFS client, rpc.mountd checks both
       the  pathname and the sender's IP address against its export table.  If
       the sender is permitted to  access  the	requested  export,  rpc.mountd
       returns	an  NFS	 file  handle  for  the export's root directory to the
       client.	The client can then use the root file handle  and  NFS	LOOKUP
       requests to navigate the directory structure of the export.

   The rmtab File
       The  rpc.mountd daemon registers every successful MNT request by adding
       an entry to the /var/lib/nfs/rmtab file.	 When receivng a UMNT  request
       from  an	 NFS client, rpc.mountd simply removes the matching entry from
       /var/lib/nfs/rmtab, as long as the access control list for that	export
       allows that sender to access the export.

       Clients	can  discover  the  list of file systems an NFS server is cur-
       rently exporting, or the list of other clients that  have  mounted  its
       exports,	 by  using  the showmount(8) command.  showmount(8) uses other
       procedures in the NFS MOUNT protocol to report  information  about  the
       server's exported file systems.

       Note,  however,	that there is little to guarantee that the contents of
       /var/lib/nfs/rmtab are accurate.	 A client may  continue	 accessing  an
       export even after invoking UMNT.	 If the client reboots without sending
       a  UMNT	request,   stale   entries   remain   for   that   client   in
       /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.

OPTIONS
       -d kind	or  --debug kind
	      Turn on debugging. Valid kinds are: all, auth, call, general and
	      parse.

       -F  or  --foreground
	      Run in foreground (do not daemonize)

       -f  or  --exports-file
	      This option specifies the exports file, listing the clients that
	      this server is prepared to serve and parameters to apply to each
	      such mount (see exports(5)).  By default, export information  is
	      read from /etc/exports.

       -h  or  --help
	      Display usage message.

       -o num  or  --descriptors num
	      Set the limit of the number of open file descriptors to num. The
	      default is to leave the limit unchanged.

       -N  or  --no-nfs-version
	      This option can be used to request that rpc.mountd do not	 offer
	      certain  versions	 of NFS. The current version of rpc.mountd can
	      support both NFS version 2, 3 and 4. If the either one of	 these
	      version  should  not be offered, rpc.mountd must be invoked with
	      the option --no-nfs-version <vers> .

       -n  or  --no-tcp
	      Don't advertise TCP for mount.

       -P     Ignored (compatibility with unfsd??).

       -p  or  --port num
	      Specifies the port number used for  RPC  listener	 sockets.   If
	      this  option  is	not  specified, rpc.mountd will try to consult
	      /etc/services, if gets port succeed, set the same port  for  all
	      listener	socket,	 otherwise chooses a random ephemeral port for
	      each listener socket.

	      This option can be used to fix the port  value  of  rpc.mountd's
	      listeners	 when  NFS  MOUNT  requests  must  traverse a firewall
	      between clients and servers.

       -H  or  --ha-callout prog
	      Specify a	 high  availability  callout  program.	 This  program
	      receives	callouts  for  all  MOUNT  and UNMOUNT requests.  This
	      allows rpc.mountd to be used in a High Availability NFS (HA-NFS)
	      environment.

	      The callout program is run with 4 arguments.  The first is mount
	      or unmount depending on the reason for the callout.  The	second
	      will  be the name of the client performing the mount.  The third
	      will be the path that the client is mounting.  The last  is  the
	      number  of  concurrent  mounts that we believe the client has of
	      that path.

	      This callout is not needed with 2.6 and later kernels.  Instead,
	      mount the nfsd filesystem on /proc/fs/nfsd.

       -s, --state-directory-path directory
	      Specify  a  directory in which to place statd state information.
	      If this option is not specified the default of  /var/lib/nfs  is
	      used.

       -r, --reverse-lookup
	      rpc.mountd  tracks  IP addresses in the rmtab file.  When a DUMP
	      request is made (by someone running showmount -a, for instance),
	      it  returns  IP  addresses instead of hostnames by default. This
	      option causes rpc.mountd to perform a reverse lookup on each  IP
	      address  and  return  that  hostname instead.  Enabling this can
	      have a substantial negative effect on performance in some situa-
	      tions.

       -t N or --num-threads=N
	      This   option  specifies	the  number  of	 worker	 threads  that
	      rpc.mountd spawns.  The default is 1 thread, which  is  probably
	      enough.	More  threads  are usually only needed for NFS servers
	      which need to handle mount storms of hundreds of NFS mounts in a
	      few seconds, or when your DNS server is slow or unreliable.

       -u  or  --no-udp
	      Don't advertise UDP for mounting

       -V  or  --nfs-version
	      This option can be used to request that rpc.mountd offer certain
	      versions of NFS. The current version of rpc.mountd  can  support
	      both NFS version 2 and the newer version 3.

       -v  or  --version
	      Print the version of rpc.mountd and exit.

       -g  or  --manage-gids
	      Accept  requests	from  the  kernel  to map user id numbers into
	      lists of group id numbers for use in  access  control.   An  NFS
	      request will normally (except when using Kerberos or other cryp-
	      tographic authentication) contains  a  user-id  and  a  list  of
	      group-ids.   Due to a limitation in the NFS protocol, at most 16
	      groups ids can be listed.	 If you use the -g flag, then the list
	      of group ids received from the client will be replaced by a list
	      of group ids determined by an appropriate lookup on the  server.
	      Note  that  the 'primary' group id is not affected so a newgroup
	      command on the client will still be  effective.	This  function
	      requires a Linux Kernel with version at least 2.6.21.

TCP_WRAPPERS SUPPORT
       You can protect your rpc.mountd listeners using the tcp_wrapper library
       or iptables(8).

       Note that the tcp_wrapper library supports only IPv4 networking.

       Add the hostnames of NFS peers that are allowed to access rpc.mountd to
       /etc/hosts.allow.   Use	the  daemon name mountd even if the rpc.mountd
       binary has a different name.

       Hostnames used in either access file will be ignored when they can  not
       be resolved into IP addresses.  For further information see the tcpd(8)
       and hosts_access(5) man pages.

   IPv6 and TI-RPC support
       TI-RPC is a pre-requisite for supporting NFS on IPv6.  If  TI-RPC  sup-
       port  is	 built into rpc.mountd, it attempts to start listeners on net-
       work transports marked 'visible' in  /etc/netconfig.   As  long	as  at
       least  one  network  transport listener starts successfully, rpc.mountd
       will operate.

FILES
       /etc/exports		input  file  for  exportfs,  listing  exports,
				export options, and access control lists

       /var/lib/nfs/rmtab	table of clients accessing server's exports

SEE ALSO
       exportfs(8),  exports(5),  showmount(8),	 rpc.nfsd(8),  rpc.rquotad(8),
       nfs(5), tcpd(8), hosts_access(5), iptables(8), netconfig(5)

       RFC 1094 - "NFS: Network File System Protocol Specification"
       RFC 1813 - "NFS Version 3 Protocol Specification"

AUTHOR
       Olaf Kirch, H. J. Lu, G. Allan Morris III, and a host of others.



				  31 Dec 2009			 rpc.mountd(8)