What is NFS:-

—>>>What is NFS?

• NFS stands for Network File System.
• The file system developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• It is a client/server system that allows users to access files across a network and treat them as if they resided in a local file directory
• For example, if you were using a computer linked to a second computer via NFS, you could access files on the second computer as if they resided in a directory on the first computer. This is accomplished through the processes of exporting (the process by which an NFS server provides remote clients with access to its files) and mounting (the process by which file systems are made available to the operating system and the user).
• The NFS protocol is designed to be independent of the computer, operating system, network architecture, and transport protocol.
• This means that systems using the NFS service may be manufactured by different vendors, use different operating systems, and be connected to networks with different architectures. These differences are transparent to the NFS application, and thus, the user.
• NFS has been extended to the Internet with WebNFS, a product and proposed standard that is now part of Netscape’s Communicator browser.
• Some of the most notable benefits that NFS can provide are:
• Local workstations use less disk space because commonly used data can be stored on a single machine and still remain accessible to others over the network.
• There is no need for users to have separate home directories on every network machine. Home directories could be set up on the NFS server and made available throughout the network.
• Storage devices such as floppy disks, CDROM drives, and Zip® drives can be used by other machines on the network. This may reduce the number of removable media drives throughout the network. WebNFS offers what Sun believes is a faster way to access Web pages and other Internet files.
• With NFS, computers connected to a network operate as clients while accessing remote files, and as servers while providing remote users access to local shared files.
• The NFS standards are publicly available and widely used.