Troubleshoot NFS

Article under construction. Last modified on May 27th, 2015

Some sections are inaccurate/incomplete/nonworking/badly organized. Please check back in a few days.

NFS's roles in FOG

NFS is used to transfer images to and from clients in FOG, and is used on both the client and server. The server's setting file controls what files & directories are exported, and their options. NFS allows writing to the /images/dev directory and allows reading from the /images directory. During imaging, the client mounts either /images/dev (for uploading or capturing an image) or /images (for downloading or deploying an image).

During upload/capture, NFS uploads images into a folder in /images/dev/<MAC Address Of Client> During download/deployment, NFS downloads images from /images/<Image Path>

Please note that FTP is used to move images from /images/dev to /images.

Testing NFS

Using a FOG debug deployment for testing (easy/quick way)

The first thing we must do is create a test file that we use to test with. On your FOG server:

echo 'This is the text I use to test with.' > /images/test.txt

Select the problematic client from your Hosts list in the web UI, Choose "Basic Tasks", then pick download. Create an immediate debug task. See picture below:

At the client, if it did not WOL, turn it on. After the client shows options on the screen, you can press [enter] to be given a command prompt.

You first need to create two directories to mount to:

mkdir /images
mkdir /images/dev

Next, we will mount to FOG's remote image directories like this:

mount -o nolock,proto=tcp,rsize=32768,intr,noatime $storage /images
mount -o nolock,proto=tcp,rsize=32768,intr,noatime 10.0.0.3:/images/dev/ /images/dev

Next, we will execute a command that will test download and upload at the same time. We will attempt to read /images/test.txt and write that file to /images/dev/test.txt

cp /images/test.txt /images/dev/test.txt

If you recieved no errors, you're probably good to go. You can confirm all went well by looking at the contents of the moved file:

cat /images/dev/test.txt

Using a separate Linux machine for testing (hard/long way)

below r3472 (1.2.0 is below r3472)

inside /etc/exports on the FOG server, Set the fsid for /images to 0 and /images/dev to 1

sudo vi /etc/exports

instructions on using Vi: Vi

Save that, exit that, then run this:

exportfs -a

Restart NFS and RPC (see services below)

After restarting NFS and RPC, proceed to the steps below just below:

r3473 and above

Linux must have an existing directory to mount remote directories to. Below, we create two directories and mount to each of them. On a separate Linux machine (not your FOG server), you can edit the "mount" command to mount a remote directory. After the mounts have been configured, we can test uploading a file and downloading a file.

At the CLI of the separate Linux machine:

Next, we will execute a command that will test download and upload at the same time. We will attempt to read /images/test.txt and write that file to /images/dev/test.txt

cp /images/test.txt /images/dev/test.txt

If you recieved no errors, you're probably good to go. You can confirm all went well by looking at the contents of the moved file:

cat /images/dev/test.txt

NFS & RPC Service

Fedora 20/21

NFS Status:

systemctl status nfs-server

(should be on and green, no errors, and enabled)

The restart command is most useful, if any errors are encountered during manual start/restart, they are displayed.

systemctl restart nfs-server

Enable NFS on boot:

systemctl enable nfs-server

RPC Status:

code here

Restart RPC:

code here

Enable RPC on boot:

code here

Ubuntu

NFS status:

sudo service nfs-kernel-server status

The restart command is most useful, if any errors are encountered during manual start/restart, they are displayed.

sudo service nfs-kernel-server restart

Enable on boot:

update-rc.d nfs-kernel-server defaults

RPC Status:

code here

Restart RPC:

code here

Enable RPC on boot:

code here

NFS Settings File

The primary NFS settings file is located here:

/etc/exports

On a standard FOG install where everything is self-contained on one system, it should look like this:

/images *(ro,sync,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=0)
/images/dev *(rw,async,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=1)

Creating & verifying .mntcheck files

.mntcheck is a hidden and empty file that a FOG client uses during image upload/capture and image download/deployment to verify an NFS share is mounted correctly.

To create these files, on the FOG server:

touch /images/.mntcheck
touch /images/dev/.mntcheck

Verify these files with:

ls -laR /images | grep .mntcheck

This should return two results. One for /images and one for /images/dev

Disable & Verify Firewall

Fedora 20/21/22/23

Disable/stop Firewall

systemctl disable firewalld.service

systemctl stop firewalld.service

Can be undone with "start" and "enable".

Check Firewall in Fedora 20/21/22/23

systemctl status firewalld.service

Fedora 16

Add /bin/bash to /etc/shells as the vsftpd yum install does not do it correctly causing tftp timeout message

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo iptables -L

If disabled, the output should look like this:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination 

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination 

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Disable Ubuntu Firewall

sudo ufw disable

Disable Debian Firewall

iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

Other debian settings:

/etc/hosts.deny

This setting in the above file will deny traffic from any source except locally:

ALL:ALL EXCEPT 127.0.0.1:DENY

Comment out this line like so:

#ALL:ALL EXCEPT 127.0.0.1:DENY

Windows 7

Start -> Control Panel -> View by "Small icons" -> Windows Firewall -> Turn Windows Firewall On or Off -> Turn off all three.

Configuring firewall on Linux

To set the firewall for Linux to only allow what is necessary, please see the FOG security article.

Permissions

For the purposes of this article (troubleshooting), the /images directory should have 777 permissions set recursively.

You can do that like this:

chmod -R 777 /images

Common problems and fixes

My problem isn't in the WiKi!

If you have a problem with FOG, or have a solution to a problem with FOG, please visit the forums for help or to report your solution. We try to keep the WiKi updated with things found in the forum. You can visit the forum here: FOG Forums

Image Upload: Error Checking Mount

Please see Image Capture: Error Checking Mount

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