topic Re: The term exports is mentioned with a exports file and file system. in ONTAP Discussions

The term exports is mentioned with a exports file and file system.

tvlport_tony — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:31:53 GMT

Hello all,

I'm pretty new to the hardware and software side of Netapp storage. I have taken some online classes, however some tings have not been metioned for the classes I have taken, like (Exports). I have been performing some tasks while working with co-workers and watching them setup up vfilers. During the course of the processes I hear the term exports. The term is not in-line of what I think as exporting files or maybe it is. If anyone out there can give me a short version of this concept I would really appreciate it. I have been doing a lot of reading on this architecture and I'm very excited to learn and develope myself around it, but I'm not there yet.

Thank you all in advance for your responses.

Re: The term exports is mentioned with a exports file and file system.

DavidSpano — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:47:22 GMT

Before a NFS filesystem can be accessed by a NFS client, the NFS server must export the filesystem. The filesystem can be a volume (/vol/vol1), a qtree (/vol/vol1/qtree) or a directory (/vol/vol1/qtree/dir1).

Before the filesystem can be accessed,

1. it must be created: vol create vol1 10g

2. a entry must be added to the /etc/exports file on the filer's root volume. The entry might look like: /vol/vol1 -rw=host1:host2,root=host1

3. then the "exportfs" command must be run on the filer: exportfs -a

Now the NFS client host can mount the filesystem: host1# mount filer1:/vol/vol1 /mnt

You can read more by running the "man" command on the filer: man exportfs

Re: The term exports is mentioned with a exports file and file system.

tvlport_tony — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:13:37 GMT

I really appreciate the help on this, I will apply that man command and verify the results. Also, after reading your explanation and checking the manual it makes a lot more sense.

Thanks again and have a great New Year.

Tony W