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Network File Services
An Introduction


Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department
bernstdh@jmu.edu

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Network File System (NFS)
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  • History:
    • Developed by Sun Microsystems (1985)
  • Purpose:
    • Provide access to files on other systems as if they are local
  • Notes:
    • Based on UNIX file system but supported on many operating systems
    • v2 uses UDP; TCP available starting in v3
NFS Client-Server Architecture
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  • Server:
    • Provides access to files/directories that are exported
  • Client:
    • Accesses remote files/directories that are mounted (as a directory in UNIX and a letter in MS-Windows)
An Exercise
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  • Getting Started:
    • Whast happens when you enter commands like pwd, cd and ls in a shell?
  • Continuing:
    • Can we design a system that allows us to do the same thing over the network?
NFS and UIDs
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  • A Requirement:
    • The user needs to have the same UID on both the client machine and the server machine
  • Managing User Information:
    • Network Information Service (NIS) (originally called Sun Yellow Pages) eliminates the need for clients to maintain user information
Network Information Service (NIS)
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  • Server:
    • The machine that contains the files to be shared (e.g., passwd, group, hosts)
    • ypserv installs the NIS server software
    • domainname sets the NIS domain name (which should be different from the DNS name)
  • Client:
    • Uses the server for authentication and other services
    • ypbind installs the NIS client software
    • yppasswd can be used to change the password
    • ypcat can be used to list information on the server
Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS)
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  • History:
    • Developed by IBM in the 1980s
  • Terminology:
    • The server "shares"
    • The client "maps" or "uses"
    • Uses the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) (e.g., \\NETBIOS-NAME\Directory)
There's Always More to Learn
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