Mounting a BFS directory on *IX

Examples

• To work with text files that can be used from both CMS and *IX:

  mountpw hostname:/../VMBFS:FPOOOL:ROOT/u/jake,userid=elwood,password=my

  mount -o soft,rw hostname:/../VMBFS:FPOOOL:ROOT/u/jake,trans=yes,xlat=posix /home/jake/miss1

• To use a BFS directory as a repository for binary files:

  mountpw hostname:/../VMBFS:FPCOOL:ROOT/u/jake,userid=elwood,password=mypass

  mount -o soft,rw hostname:/../VMBFS:FPCOOL:ROOT/u/jake,trans=no /home/jake/miss1

Hints and Tips

• See a "security flavor not supported" message? Try using mountvers=1 on your mount request.

• See MOUNT command, MOUNTPW command, and UMOUNT command for complete syntax descriptions. Still having trouble? Try Diagnosing Mount Problems.

• Your NFS administrator can define export entries to make it easier to mount a VM file system. Use showmount -e hostname to determine which file systems are exported for that server.

  Export is supported for VM NFS servers at TCP/IP level 320 for VM/ESA Version 2, Release 4.0 and higher. Do you need help determining the release level running on your server?

• You can use any LOGON BY privileges defined for your VM user ID. See the userid= and by= parameters on the MOUNT command for more information.

• The MOUNTPW command can be used to enter authentication information such as user ID and password separately from the MOUNT command. This is useful on multi-user NFS client systems, where the MOUNT commands are saved and can be displayed later.

• MOUNT must be issued from a super-user.

• For hostname:, use the system on which the file pool server resides to avoid unnecessary overhead.

• You must use a fully-qualified BFS directory name on the MOUNT command. Be careful - case is important!

• The VM NFS server uses the UID & GID associated with the VM user ID specified on the userid= mount parameter. You may have difficulty if the UID and GID on the *IX client do not match those associated with the VM user ID. In particular, you may have trouble creating new BFS files. See UID Definitions for some ideas about how to handle this.

• Be careful about submitting too many MOUNT requests with an invalid password. The VM system may disable a user ID if too many attempts are made to verify a userid/password combination.

• If you want EBCDIC-ASCII translation to be done based on the value of the file extension, use the trans=ext parameter instead of trans=yes or trans=no.

• See BFS link processing for more information about hard and symbolic links.

• Use the SMSG command to obtain more information if you receive an error but don't understand what went wrong when using a BFS directory.

• NFS server support for BFS is available only on NFS servers running at least TCP/IP level 310 for VM/ESA Version 2 Release 3.

Please write to Mary Ellen Carollo, maryelln@us.ibm.com, if you have comments on these instructions.

Return to the main z/VM TCP/IP NFS Server Support page.