NFS V4 host identification

The NFS V4 server identifies client hosts using these methods.

Basic host identification

An NFS V4 server identifies client hosts by the IP address given in the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) packets. The NFS server turns this IP address into a host name using a host resolver, which gets its information from the Domain Name System (DNS) or the local /etc/hosts file.

Kerberos host identification

Kerberos authentication uses a unique identifier called a machine principal to identify hosts. The machine principal is established when configuring a host into a Kerberos realm. The machine principal name is the fully qualified host name prefixed with host/ (for example, host/jsblade00.austin.ibm.com).

Kerberos can indirectly identify a host is through the NFS service principal (the identification of the NFS service running on the host). The service principal name is the fully qualified host name prefixed with nfs/ (for example, nfs/jsblade00.austin.ibm.com).