Connecting using NFS from a Microsoft Windows client

You can connect to an NFS export using the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Prerequisites

To access the share or export, a user must have appropriate POSIX permissions for accessing the path, and ACL authorization to read (r) and execute (x) each directory in the full path of the directory on which the share or export is mounted. If an Storwize V7000 Unified system administrator has disabled the --bypassTraversalCheck option of the chcfg Storwize V7000 Unified CLI command, which is enabled by default, retain the traversal rights ACE entry to ensure that users are able to access the share or export and its subdirectories. For example, to access a share or export mounted at /ibm/mydir/mysubdir/myexport, the above ACLs, at a minimum, must be applied to /ibm, /ibm/mydir, /ibm/mydir/mysubdir and /ibm/mydir/mysubdir/myexport. See Creating shares or exports, Managing authorization and access control lists, and Authorization limitations.

The NFS client must be enabled on the client Windows system. The Windows 7 operating system can provide an NFS client, but the NFS client service is disabled by default, and must be enabled for access to NFS exports from the Storwize V7000 Unified system.

Enabling the NFS client on a Windows 7 system:

Select Control Panel.
Select Programs.
Select Programs and Features.
Select Turn Windows Features on or off.
Select Services for NFS.
Select the check box Client for NFS and click OK.

Example: Connecting a Windows 7 system to an Storwize V7000 Unified system NFS export

NFS Server: Storwize V7000 Unified system

NFS client: Windows 7 system that is enabled with NFS client

List the NFS exports that are available from the Storwize V7000 Unified system. From the Windows command line, submit a command using the following syntax:

showmount -e Storwize V7000 Unified system name or Storwize V7000 Unified public IP address

example:

C:\Windows\system32>showmount -e almari.in.ibm.com
Exports list on almari.in.ibm.com:
/ibm/gpfs0/cifstest                localhost.localdomain
/ibm/gpfs0/smalik/nfstest1         9.118.46.37
/ibm/gpfs0/ldap                    @qasystems
/ibm/gpfs0/data                    *

Mount the Storwize V7000 Unified system NFS export to a Windows drive. From the Windows command line, submit a command in the following syntax:
```
mount -o mtype=hard Storwize V7000 Unifiedsystem_name or IP_address:Storwize V7000 Unified system export name drive letter or *
```
Note: If you specify the asterisk character rather than a drive letter, Windows mounts the NFS export to the next available drive letter.
example 1 specifying a drive letter:
```
C:\Windows\system32>mount -o mtype=hard almari.in.ibm.com:/ibm/gpfs0/data Z:
Z: is now successfully connected to almari.in.ibm.com:/ibm/gpfs0/data
The command completed successfully.
```
example 2 allowing Windows to select the next available drive letter:
```
C:\Windows\system32>mount -o mtype=hard almari.in.ibm.com:/ibm/gpfs0/data *
Z: is now successfully connected to almari.in.ibm.com:/ibm/gpfs0/data
The command completed successfully.
```
Note: If you want to ensure that the same IP address is used every time, specify the IP address rather than the system name, as in the following example:
example 3 using IP address rather than system name:
```
mount -o mtype=hard 9.11.138.161:/ibm/gpfs0/iov0505 V:
V: is now successfully connected to 9.11.138.161:/ibm/gpfs0/iov0505
The command completed successfully.
```
Tip: NFS clients are responsible for maintaining data integrity when a server reboots, crashes or fails over. The default NFS mount type on a Windows system is a soft mount. To reduce I/O disruption when the Storwize V7000 Unified system NFS server reboots, use a hard mount by specifying -o mtype=hard when mounting an NFS export on a Windows system using the mount command. For NFS data integrity options that can be used when creating or modifying an export on the Storwize V7000 Unified system, see CIFS and NFS data integrity options.

Verify the NFS mount attributes on the Windows system. From the Windows command line, submit the mount command:

mount

example:

C:\Windows\system32>mount

Local    Remote                                 Properties
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Z:       \\almari.in.ibm.com\ibm\gpfs0\data     UID=-2, GID=-2
                                                rsize=32768, wsize=32768
                                                mount=hard, timeout=0.8
                                                retry=1, locking=yes
                                                fileaccess=755, lang=ANSI
                                                casesensitive=no
                                                sec=sys