What's New With the NFS Service

This section provides information about new features in releases of the Solaris OS.

Changes in Solaris Express, Developer Edition 1/08

The Solaris Express, Developer Edition 1/08 release provides support for mirrormounts that enable an NFSv4 client to traverse shared file system mount points in the server namespace. The main advantage that mirrormounts offer over the traditional automounter is that mounting a file system using mirrormounts does not require the overhead associated with administering automount maps. Mirrormounts provide these features:

• Namespace changes are immediately visible to all clients.

• New shared file systems are discovered instantly and mounted automatically.

• Mounts can be created at any server location.

• File systems unmount automatically after a designated inactivity period.

• Automounter-like functionality without any dependence on the automounter.

• No setup required at either the client or server.

For more information about mirrormounts, refer to the following:

• How to Mount All File Systems from a Server

• How Mirrormounts Work

Changes in the Solaris Express, Developer Edition 2/07 Release

The Solaris Express, Developer Edition 2/07 release provides support for two utilities that enable you to manage file systems and file-sharing protocols:

• The sharemgr utility simplifies tasks related to sharing file systems. For example, when using sharemgr to share file systems, set property values for shared file systems, or perform related tasks, you do not need to use the share, shareall, or unshare utilities. Additionally, you do not need to edit the /etc/dfs/dfstab file. For more information, see the sharemgr(1M) man page and sharemgr Command.

  For procedures that use the sharemgr utility, see the following:

  • Automatic File-System Sharing

  • Mounting File Systems

  • Administering the Secure NFS System

• The sharectl utility enables you to configure and manage file-sharing protocols, such as NFS. For example, this utility allows you to set client and server operational properties, display property values for a specific protocol, and obtain the status of a protocol. For more information, see the sharectl(1M) man page and sharectl Command.

For information about all the new features in the Solaris Express, Developer Edition 2/07 release, see Solaris Express Developer Editicon What’s New.

Changes in the Solaris 10 11/06 Release

The Solaris 10 11/06 release provides support for a file system monitoring tool. See the following:

• fsstat Command for a description and examples

• fsstat(1M) man page for more information

Additionally, this Guide provides a more detailed description of the nfsmapid daemon. For information about nfsmapid, see the following:

• nfsmapid Daemon

• nfsmapid(1M) man page

For a complete list of new features in the Solaris 10 11/06 release, see Solaris Express Developer Editicon What’s New.

Changes in the Solaris Express 5/06 Release

Starting in the Solaris Express 5/06 release, the NFS version 4 domain can be defined during the installation of the Solaris OS. For more information, see the following:

• nfsmapid Daemon for a description and examples

• nfsmapid(1M) man page for more information

For a complete list of the new features in the Solaris Express release, see Solaris Express Developer Editicon What’s New.

Changes in the Solaris 10 Release

Starting in the Solaris 10 release, NFS version 4 is the default. For information about features in NFS version 4 and other changes, refer to the following:

• Accessing NFS File Systems Using CacheFS

• /etc/default/autofs File

• Keywords for the /etc/default/nfs File

• lockd Daemon

• nfs4cbd Daemon

• nfsmapid Daemon

• mount Options for NFS File Systems

• NFS Over RDMA

• Version Negotiation in NFS

• Features in NFS Version 4

• How Autofs Selects the Nearest Read-Only Files for Clients (Multiple Locations)

Also, see the following:

• Setting Up NFS Services for task information

• Solaris Express Developer Editicon What’s New for a complete list of new features

Additionally, the NFS service is managed by the Service Management Facility. Administrative actions on this service, such as enabling, disabling, or restarting, can be performed by using the svcadm command. The service's status can be queried by using the svcs command. For more information about the Service Management Facility, refer to the smf(5) man page and Chapter 15, Managing Services (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.