4.4 Persistent Mounts and NFS

/etc/fstab

Command line mounts (sudo mount) disappear when you reboot. To make them permanent, edit /etc/fstab.

Danger

An error in /etc/fstab can cause your system to fail booting. Always verify before rebooting!

Best Practice: Use UUIDs

Device names (/dev/sdb1) can change if you unplug/plug disks. UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers) never change.

1. Find UUID: sudo blkid
2. Edit file: sudo nano /etc/fstab

Format: <Device UUID> <Mount Point> <Filesystem> <Options> <Dump> <Pass>

Example:

UUID=1234-abcd-5678  /mnt/data  ext4  defaults  0  2

1. Verify: run sudo mount -a. If it outputs no errors, you are safe.

Network File System (NFS)

Accessing storage over the network.

Client Setup:

1. Install commons: sudo apt install nfs-common (Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install nfs-utils (Rocky).

2. Test mount:

   sudo mount server_ip:/exported/share /mnt/local_mountpoint

3. Add to fstab for persistence:

   server_ip:/share  /mnt/local  nfs  defaults  0  0