how-to setup Win 2008R2 as NFS server

Sometimes it is helpful to set up windows as a NFS server to transfer files between a windows and Linux machine. This is especially useful when setting up a RHEV (2.2 not relevant any more with 3.0) environment and you do not have a NFS server or extra Linux box available for your ISO or Export domain. Its pretty straight forward however having this doc and the exact folder permission saves some time when setting up a NFS server in Windows.

Please keep in mind we do not recommend using Windows as an NFS server for excessive traffic, and I have not done much testing with this setup, however for a simple ISO domain it has proven to work in the past.

1. Add the “File Services” role to the windows 2008R2 server form the “Server Manager”

2. Create a folder to share via, NFS.  It is recommend doing this in the root dir for easyer access when mounting, ie C:/nfs_export, however does not have to be.

3. Modify the properties of the folder to allow a Linux client to connect.

– in the properties setting for the nfs_share folder click on the “NFS Sharing” tab and then the “Manage NFS Sharing” button.

– check the “share this folder” box

– select “No server authentication [Auth_SYS]” and “Enable unmapped user access”, also “Allow unmapped user Unix access (by UID/GID)”

4. The above setting should allow RHEVM to mount the NFS share as an ISO or Export domain. If you wish to test or mount this share as root, ie form shell on host or to copy files in, the additional step is required.

– click on the “permissions” button at the bottom of the “NFS Advanced Sharing” window and click the “allow root access” box.
see screen shot for more details…….

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