Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What versions of Windows are supported?

A1: Windows 2000, XP (Home, Professional), Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, Windows 7 (32 and 64bit).

Q2: Sometimes my NFS clients get stale NFS file handle error messages. Why is that?

A2: Stale NFS file handle errors will occur on an NFS client if the NFS server is restarted while the client has an export mounted. The NFS server maintains file handle information when it is running and that information is lost when the server stops. For best results, ensure that all clients have unmounted NFS exports before restarting the NFS server.

Q3: Why do I get no response from the NFS server?

A3: If you are using firewalls on Windows or any of the clients, their configuration must be adjusted to allow various ports through to the server and clients.

NFS works by using several subprocesses to handle various aspects of NFS operation. These subprocesses are called portmapper, mountd, and nfsd. Each of these subprocesses uses one TCP port and one UDP port to listen for requests. All but mountd have a standard port number that they use. portmapper uses port 111. nfsd uses port 2049. mountd, however, uses an arbitrary port number that the operating system assigns. This number will likely be different every time Allegro NFS initializes. This can be a problem if you want to do a one-time configuration of your firewall to allow NFS to work. To help with this problem, Allegro NFS allows you to configure mountd so that it always uses the same port number. You can specify the port number by starting the Allegro NFS configuration program, clicking on the "Global" tab, clicking on the "User-defined" radio button, and supplying the port number of your choice. Port 5000 is suggested by the default but you can use any legal, unused port number. Keep in mind that if you use a port number that is being used by some other program, Allegro NFS will fail to initialize correctly and NFS operations will not work. If this happens, try a different port number and restart Allegro NFS.

Here are the ports which must have access through your firewall:

• UDP and TCP port 111 (for portmapper protocol)
• UDP and TCP port 2049 (for NFS protocol)
• Your chosen UDP and TCP port for mountd
  Specification of the mountd port requires Allegro NFS Server version 4.3 or later.

Q4: Are symbolic links supported?

A4: Yes, but it requires Allegro NFS Server version 5.0 or later.

Q5: Is chmod supported?

A5: chmod is not supported. chmod requests are simply ignored by Allegro NFS. This was a specific design decision to avoid confusing problems that can be caused when the chmod'd files are subsequently accessed on the Windows side. The execute bit is simulated based on filename extension. Files with filename extension exe, bat, and com automatically have the 'x' bit set. If you need the execute bit set, you can make Allegro NFS enable the execute bit on every file, which may suit your needs. You can do this by editing the "set mode bits" setting for the export using the configuration utility. If you use a value of '111', that will set the execute bit for all files.

Q6: When starting Allegro NFS I get 'Error: portmap_set failed'. What's wrong?

A6: This error indicates that you likely have another vendor's NFS product installed and it is causing a conflict when Allegro NFS attempts to set up a portmapper at the same port. The solution is verify that other NFS server products are completely uninstalled, reboot, and attempt to start Allegro NFS again. In particular, customers have noted that Microsoft Services for UNIX includes a portmapper daemon. Uninstalling or disabling this process has been known to resolve this issue.

Q7: I exported a mapped network drive or a UNC path, but when I access the export from an NFS client, the files are inaccessible. Why doesn't this work?

A7: The Allegro NFS service normally runs under the window SYSTEM (aka LocalSystem) account. This account is very powerful and has access to all files on the local computer (although Allegro NFS will restrict access according to the configuration you supplied). However, the SYSTEM account does not have access to network drives.

To remedy this problem, you can reconfigure the Allegro NFS service so that it runs under a normal user account. To do this, right-click on My Computer and select 'Manage'. Go into "Services and Applications", then "Services". Locate the "NFS Server" entry, right-click on it and select "Properties". Select the "Log On" tab. You'll find that it is currently set to "Local System account". Select the "This account" radio button and fill in the account name (and associated password) for the account that you want Allegro NFS to run under. Then go back to the "General" tab and stop and restart the service.

Note that the user account that you choose will only be able to succesfully export files/directories that it normally has access to.

Q8: Why don't the clients see the exports I created?

A8: Make sure your exports start with a slash (/). The usual way NFS clients reference mounts is from the root directory.

Q9: The NFS service will not start and I see "wait-for-service-to-start: Unexpected service state: 3" in the NFS console. How to fix?

A9: Likely you have another NFS server installed which is holding onto ports Allegro NFS needs to start. Uninstall or stop the other service, and Allegro NFS should start properly.

Q10: I played around with other nfs products, but now I'm trying yours, so why are my nfs requests hanging?

A10: It is likely you have another NFS product installed. If you tried the NFS client in Windows 7, here's how you can turn it off: Computer => Uninstall or change a program => Turn Windows features on or off: uncheck "Services for NFS"

Q11: Why can't I mount my export on linux clients with nfs-utils version 1.2.2 or greater?

A11: Newer versions of mount use mount.nfs4 by default. You'll need to specify version 2 or 3 in your mount command. Usually this is done by specifing -o vers=3 on the command line, but please see man mount or man mount.nfs on your system for more information on how to specify the version.

Q12: Why do I get the following error message in Windows: Error 1061:The service cannot accept control messages at this time. when I try to restart the Allegro NFS service?

A12: You'll need to restart the service as the Administrator user.