Mounting NFS shares on Os X client - help needed?

I have been trying to export NFS shares on unRaid for the Os X (apple) clients with Snow Leopard. I could not manage to connect to the the NFS shares. Samba works fine. I would appreciate very much if somebody could guide me in the correct direction.

I use the Disk Utility to mount the NFS shares. I create a mount point at /Volumes/ and try to reach the unRaid server using the address "nfs://Servers_IP/XXXX".

1. What is the correct directory path for the NFS shares on unRaid? Is it "nfs://Servers_IP/mnt/user/disk1" or "nfs://Servers_IP/home/mnt/user/disk1" for disk shares and "nfs://Servers_IP/home/mnt/user/SHARES_NAME" for user shares?

2. Do I need to issue "-P" for the advanced options or "revsport=2049"?

3. Do I need to do anything on the server side apart from adding (-rw) to the /exports?

4. Do I need to add "insecure" option as well - some body has claimed it is not necessary, others mentioned that is essential?

Finally,

5. SMB shares work fine but much slower on Os X (35-40MB/s) than on Win 7 (50-60MB/s). The reason for trying to have the NFS shares is the hope of gaining some more speed in gigabyte LAN. Is this assumption correct?

with many thanks.

Have you searched the forums? Look here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5234.0

You should use -P on Mac, no insurecure option needed on unRaid. On Snow Leopard use Disk Utiliy to specify and mount the exported shares (on 10.5 it is Directory Utility). unRAID server export path is nfs://tank/mnt/disk1 for the disks and nfs://tank/mnt/user/ShareName for the user shares.

Thank you starcat. I did search extensively and earlier went through the Snow Leopard guide that you were referring to. However, there were no hints with regard to the correct directory path of the NFS shares on unRaid and I was putting /home and /user there unnecessarily. Now I got it. I will try when I get back to home.

What about the speed: is NFS significantly faster than the SMB according to your experiences? Do I need to add (rw) command on the server side if I want the shares to be accessable to every one?

NFS is faster. I get with unRAID about 40-50MB/s sustained but get 80-90MB/s over AFP to a Qnap 509. AFP is still the way to go with Apple and it is possible with unRAID too, however additional manual stuff have to be done. Search the forums for Avahi and AFP. You may want to start here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3824.0 and the end there is a link to a How-To.

unRAID is pretty bussy calculating parity and writes to a single disk thus the slower speed. Basically between 30-50MB/s write speed is pretty good.

Thanks for the hints.

I managed to mount the NFS shares on Mac Os X. The mount point's name must be same as the share's name (ie. /mnt/EXAMPLE and /Volumes/EXAMPLE). That is where I made a stupid mistake earlier  Now, with NFS I get a steady 48-52 MB/s write and up to 70-80MB/s read speed. I can make aliases of the folders (not the shares or disks, but the folders within them) and keep them on the side bar and even change the icons. Very happy. I must note that I am using a cache driver (on the conventional PCI SATA card though).

I did install also "avahi" 0 config environment now, though it does not make much difference other than having a name instead of Ip number on the side bar. The speed is very similar to SMB shares. 

Thanks again.

You may create a directory like /Volumes/NFS and put all your NFS mounts in there. Then just drag NFS to the Sidebar of the Finder to have them accessible and grouped together :-)

There is no need to create any directories below /Volumes/NFS/ as they will be created automatically by the OS (mounts will be named the same as the exports).

Here's what I do on my mac (note you may need the NFS insecure option set for this to work)..

All NFS exports are available on the mac by browsing to /net/<server name/ip address>, for example, my server is called "stewie" (renamed from tower) and I can access all my shares this way:

/net/stewie/mnt/user/movies
/net/stewie/mnt/user/tv
etc..

In fact, you can create an alias or symbolic link to anywhere in these folders.. I created myself a folder called /Volumes/network/stewie and create symbolic links to various shares on my server:

ln -s /net/stewie/mnt/user/movies /Volumes/network/stewie/Movies
ln -s /net/stewie/mnt/user/tv /Volumes/network/stewie/"TV Shows"
etc .

It may be a bit more involved than Disk Utility (in 10.6), but I found it to work MUCH better (and more consistently). I had difficulties mounting NFS shares to various locations on my computer (it seems it would only take them in the root /Volume). This way, there's no configuration to add in Disk Utility (or Directory Utility in older versions). The symlinks do it all for you. If you don't set the NFS options in unraid to insecure, you will most likely get an "operation not permitted" when trying to access the folders.

Just another option.

Stokkes, you are basically suggesting using the automounter but then you can't specify to use privileged ports for mounting the volumes, thus you need the "insecure" option on unRAID. I never had any problems by using Directory or Disk Utility and the method described above, even when the server isn't available. No locking, no anything. But you are right, automounting is another viable alternative!

can u post a how-to to mount nfs mounts on mac os x?

I did the following:

1. open directory utility in leopard

2. added nfs://10.0.1.10/mnt/user/Applications --> /Volumes/Applications

3. added the -P option under Advanced Mount parameters

4. Click verify

5. use Finder to go to /Volumes/Applications

but when I click on it, it says the original cannot be found

I have tried chmod 777 * to all my directories under unRAID

when i try to mount it in finder by using "go to server" nfs://10.0.1.10/ ...i get an error because the name or password is not correct

Wait a couple of seconds, go to another dir and then try again to click on the mountpoint. Somethimes the finder needs to think a bit longer. Sure you have exported those shares on unRAID?

got it now, i was exporting nfs shares wrong under unraid

good god, i love my unraid server even more now