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*** Network File System (NFS) ***
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Network File System (NFS) is distributed file system protocol suite developed by Sun Microsystems that allows remote file access across a network. It allows all network users to access shared files stored on remote computers, in exactly the same way as a user would access any local files. This is made possible by a mixture of kernel functionality on the client side (that uses the remote file system) and an NFS server on the server side (that provides the file data). This file access is completey transparent to the client, and works across a variety of server and host architecture.
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NFS provides access to shared files through an interface called the 'Virtual File System (VFS)' that runs on top of TCP/IP. With NFS, computers connected to an network operate as clients while accessing remote files, and as servers while providing remote users access to local shared files.
NFS offers a number of advantages. These are :-:
(a) Data accessed by all users can be kept on a central host. For example, we can keep all user accounts on one host, and have all hosts on our access their home (user) directories from that hosts.
(b) Data consuming large amounts of disk space can be kept on a single host. For example, all files and programs relating to LaTeX and METAFONT could be kept and maintained in one place.
(c) Administrative data can be kept on a single host. There is no need keep copies of such files n number of different machines.
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