Mount a Directory

Mount a Directory from one Server to Another Server

The easiest way to share files or directories between linux servers is to mount a directory from one server to another server using nfs. Assuming we had 2 servers, the easiest way mount a folder from one linux machine onto another would be to export the directory you wish to share on server1, and mount it on server2.

Step 1 – Sharing the directory on server1
To export the directory, you need to add it to the

/etc/exports

file on server1, and give rights to the second server so it may mount it. On server1, open the exports file as below:

# vim /etc/exports

Then add the following to the exports file:

/path/to/shared/directory/ server2(rw)

Now save and close the file. This would give server2 read and write access to the shared folder on server1 called

/path/to/shared/directory/

.

Anytime you make changes to the

/etc/exports

file, the following command must be run on the server to update the nfs server:
# exportfs -avr

Step 2 – Mounting the directory on server2
Now you need to mount the shared folder on server2. To do this we will be editing the

/etc/fstab

file on server2.

# vim /etc/fstab

Then add the following to the fstab file:

server1:/path/to/shared/directory/ /directory/on/server2 nfs hard,intr 0 0

Now save and close the file. This will point

/directory/on/server2

on server2 to

/path/to/shared/directory/

on server1.

To remount all nfs entries in fstab and activate the mount, run the following command:

# mount -t nfs -a