10.8. NFS and rpcbind

10.8. NFS and `rpcbind`

Note

The following section only applies to NFSv2 or NFSv3 implementations that require the rpcbind service for backward compatibility.

The rpcbind^[2] utility maps RPC services to the ports on which they listen. RPC processes notify rpcbind when they start, registering the ports they are listening on and the RPC program numbers they expect to serve. The client system then contacts rpcbind on the server with a particular RPC program number. The rpcbind service redirects the client to the proper port number so it can communicate with the requested service.

Because RPC-based services rely on rpcbind to make all connections with incoming client requests, rpcbind must be available before any of these services start.

The rpcbind service uses TCP wrappers for access control, and access control rules for rpcbind affect all RPC-based services. Alternatively, it is possible to specify access control rules for each of the NFS RPC daemons. The man pages for rpc.mountd and rpc.statd contain information regarding the precise syntax for these rules.

10.8.1. Troubleshooting NFS and `rpcbind`

Because rpcbind^[2] provides coordination between RPC services and the port numbers used to communicate with them, it is useful to view the status of current RPC services using rpcbind when troubleshooting. The rpcinfo command shows each RPC-based service with port numbers, an RPC program number, a version number, and an IP protocol type (TCP or UDP).

To make sure the proper NFS RPC-based services are enabled for rpcbind, issue the following command as root:

rpcinfo -p

The following is sample output from this command:

program vers proto   port
100021    1   udp  32774  nlockmgr
100021    3   udp  32774  nlockmgr
100021    4   udp  32774  nlockmgr
100021    1   tcp  34437  nlockmgr
100021    3   tcp  34437  nlockmgr
100021    4   tcp  34437  nlockmgr
100011    1   udp    819  rquotad
100011    2   udp    819  rquotad
100011    1   tcp    822  rquotad
100011    2   tcp    822  rquotad
100003    2   udp   2049  nfs
100003    3   udp   2049  nfs
100003    2   tcp   2049  nfs
100003    3   tcp   2049  nfs
100005    1   udp    836  mountd
100005    1   tcp    839  mountd
100005    2   udp    836  mountd
100005    2   tcp    839  mountd
100005    3   udp    836  mountd
100005    3   tcp    839  mountd

If one of the NFS services does not start up correctly, rpcbind will be unable to map RPC requests from clients for that service to the correct port. In many cases, if NFS is not present in rpcinfo output, restarting NFS causes the service to correctly register with rpcbind and begin working. For instructions on starting NFS, refer to Section 10.5, “Starting and Stopping NFS”.

For more information and a list of options on rpcinfo, refer to its man page.