Mounting file shares on Compute Engine clients

This page shows you how to mount a Filestore file share on a Compute Engine virtual machine (VM) instance that's in the same Google Cloud project and VPC network. To learn how to mount file shares on clients in a remote network, see Mounting file shares on remote clients. If you're looking to access Filestore instances from Google Kubernetes Engine clusters instead, see Access Filestore instances with the Filestore CSI driver.

Before you begin

Ensure that the network firewall is properly configured for use with Filestore. See Configuring firewall rules for details.

Mounting a file share on a Compute Engine VM instance

Use one of the following procedures to mount a Filestore file share on a Compute Engine VM. We recommend mounting to a n1-standard-8 VM or greater for optimal performance.

Linux: mount

To manually mount a file share to a Linux client VM:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to the VM instances page

  2. Locate the Linux VM you want to use as a client, then click SSH to open a terminal on that VM.

  3. Optional: Mounting a file share on a client VM with multiple network interfaces through a secondary network.

    Details (Click to expand)

    If you want to mount the file share through a secondary network, namely an interface other than nic0, you must modify the client VM's routing policy. Run:

    sudo ip route \
    add filestore-reserved-address-range \
    via default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore

    where:

    • filestore-reserved-address-range is the reserved address range for use by the Filestore instance.
    • default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore is the default gateway IP address of the NIC connected to the VPC network that is shared with the Filestore instance.

    For more information about using Compute Engine instances with multiple NICs, see Configure routing for an additional network interface.

  4. Install NFS:

    Debian/Ubuntu

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Debian or Ubuntu.

    sudo apt-get -y update &&
    sudo apt-get install nfs-common

    RHEL/CentOS

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS.

    sudo yum update &&
    sudo yum install nfs-utils

    SUSE

    Use the following commands to install NFS on SUSE.

    sudo zypper update &&
    sudo zypper -n install nfs-client

  5. Make a local directory to map to the Filestore file share:

    sudo mkdir -p mount-point-directory

    where mount-point-directory is the directory to create, for example /mnt/filedir.

  6. Mount the file share from the Filestore instance by running the mount command. You can use any NFS mount options. For the best performance, we recommend using the following NFS mount options:

    Option Description
    hard The NFS client retries NFS requests indefinitely. To reduce the possibility of I/O disruptions when the Filestore instance reboots, we recommend using the hard mount option for both Linux and Windows clients.
    timeo=600 The NFS client waits 600 deciseconds (60 seconds) before retrying an NFS request.
    retrans=3 The NFS client attempts NFS requests three times before taking further recovery action.
    rsize=524288 The NFS client can receive a maximum of 524,288 bytes from the NFS server per READ request.
    Note: For basic-tier instances, set the rsize value to 1048576.
    wsize=524288 The NFS client can send a maximum of 524,288 bytes to the NFS server per WRITE request.
    resvport The NFS client uses a privileged source port when communicating with the NFS server for this mount point.
    async The NFS client delays sending application writes to the NFS server until certain conditions are met.
    Caution: Using the sync option significantly reduces performance.

    • For reduced mounting latency, specify the -o tcp option.

    • If you are mounting a regional, zonal or enterprise instance to a client VM that's running Linux kernel version 5.3+, consider specifying the nconnect mount option for increased NFS performance. For specific service tiers, we recommend specifying the following number of connections between the client and server:

      Tier Capacity Number of connections
      Regional, zonal 1-9.75 TiB nconnect=2
      Regional, zonal 10-100 TiB nconnect=7
      Enterprise - nconnect=2
      High scale SSD - nconnect=7

      In general, the larger the file share capacity and the fewer the connecting client VMs, the more performance you gain by specifying additional connections with nconnect.

    Run the mount command with your preferred options, similar to the following:

    sudo mount -o rw ip-address:/file-share mount-point-directory

    where:

    • ip-address is the IP address for the Filestore instance.
    • file-share is the name of the file share on the instance.
    • mount-point-directory is the path where you want to map the Filestore file share to.

    You can get the IP address and file share name of an instance from any of following sources:

    For example, given a Filestore instance with an IP address 10.0.1.2 and a file share named share1, the following command mounts the file share to the local mount point directory /mnt/render:

    sudo mount 10.0.1.2:/share1 /mnt/render

  7. Optional: Run chmod to set permissions on the mount directory so that someone other than root users can write to it. To set directory permissions, run the following command:

    sudo chmod permissions mount-point-directory

    where:

    • permissions is the set of permissions to grant. For example, chmod go+rw makes the directory readable and writable by members in the group that owns the directory and all other users. For more information about setting permissions, see Configuring access on a file share.
    • mount-point-directory is the path to the directory where the Filestore file share is mounted.

  8. Optional: Confirm that the Filestore file share is mounted:

    df -h --type=nfs

    The output should contain an entry similar to the following:

    Filesystem        Size    Used  Avail  Use%  Mounted on
10.0.1.2:/share1  1018G   76M   966G   1%    /mnt/render
10.0.2.2:/vol3    1018G   76M   966G   1%    /mnt/filestore3

  9. If you need to use NFS file locking, you might need to set the ports used by the statd and nlockmgr daemons and configure firewall rules to open up those ports.

Linux: /etc/fstab

You can make file shares automatically mount to client VMs during boot up by modifying the client's /etc/fstab file:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to the VM instances page

  2. Locate the Linux VM you want to use as a client, then click SSH to open a terminal on that VM.

  3. Optional: Mounting a file share on a client VM that has multiple network interfaces through a secondary network.

    Details (Click to expand)

    If you want to mount the file share through a secondary network, namely an interface other than nic0, you must modify the client VM's routing policy:

    • In /etc/default/instance_configs.cfg, set the setup flag for NetworkInterfaces to false: 
      [NetworkInterfaces]
dhclient_script = /sbin/google-dhclient-script
dhcp_command =
ip_forwarding = true
   setup = false

    • In /etc/network/interfaces, add the following lines:

      auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
    up ip route add filestore-reserved-address-range via default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore

    where:

    • filestore-reserved-address-range is the reserved address range for use by the Filestore instance.
    • default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore is the default gateway IP address of the NIC connected to the VPC network that is shared with the Filestore instance.

    For more information about using Compute Engine instances with multiple NICs, see Configure routing for an additional network interface.

  4. Install NFS:

    Debian/Ubuntu

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Debian or Ubuntu.

    sudo apt-get -y update &&
    sudo apt-get install nfs-common

    RHEL/CentOS

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS.

    sudo yum update &&
    sudo yum install nfs-utils

    SUSE

    Use the following commands to install NFS on SUSE.

    sudo zypper update &&
    sudo zypper -n install nfs-client

  5. Make a local directory to map to the Filestore file share:

    sudo mkdir -p mount-point-directory

    where mount-point-directory is the directory to create, for example /mnt/filedir.

  6. Open the /etc/fstab file:

    sudo vim /etc/fstab

  7. Add the following line in the /etc/fstab file:

    ip-address:/file-share mount-point-directory nfs options,_netdev 0 0

    where:

    • ip-address is the IP address for the Filestore instance.
    • file-share is the name of the file share on the instance.
    • mount-point-directory is the path you want to map the Filestore file share to.

    • options are the NFS mount options. We recommend keeping the default NFS mount options, with the following exceptions:

      • For automounting, we recommend specifying -o tcp to reduce the latency when mounting and unmounting.
      • If you are mounting a regional, zonal or enterprise instance to a client VM that's running Linux kernel version 5.3+, consider specifying the nconnect mount option for increased NFS performance. For specific service tiers, we recommend specifying the following number of connections between the client and server:
      Tier Capacity Number of connections
      Regional, zonal 1-9.75 TiB nconnect=2
      Regional, zonal 10-100 TiB nconnect=7
      Enterprise - nconnect=2
      High scale SSD - nconnect=7

      In general, the larger the file share capacity and the fewer the connecting client VMs, the more performance you gain by specifying additional connections with nconnect.

    Example: The following line in /etc/fstab mounts file share vol1 of the Filestore instance with IP address 10.0.0.2 in the mount point directory /mnt with the default mount options:

      10.0.0.2:/vol1 /mnt nfs defaults,_netdev 0 0

  8. Mount everything in /etc/fstab:

        sudo mount -a

    The file share is now automatically mounted each time the client VM boots up.

Linux: autofs

You can configure autofs to automatically mount a file share only when it's accessed and keep it unmounted when it's not used. Compared to having a file share statically mounted in /etc/fstab, this method helps conserve client VM resources in situations where the client needs to map to many mount points.

Install NFS and autofs on the client VM

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to the VM instances page

  2. Locate the Linux VM you want to use as a client, then click SSH to open a terminal on that VM.

  3. Optional: Mounting a file share on a client VM with multiple network interfaces through a secondary network.

    Details (Click to expand)

    If you want to mount the file share through a secondary network, namely an interface other than nic0, you must modify the client VM's routing policy:

    • In /etc/default/instance_configs.cfg, set the setup flag for NetworkInterfaces to false: 
      [NetworkInterfaces]
dhclient_script = /sbin/google-dhclient-script
dhcp_command =
ip_forwarding = true
   setup = false
    • In /etc/network/interfaces, add the following lines: auto eth1 iface eth1 inet dhcp up ip route add filestore-reserved-address-range via default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore

    where:

    • filestore-reserved-address-range is the reserved address range for use by the Filestore instance.
    • default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore is the default gateway IP address of the NIC connected to the VPC network that is shared with the Filestore instance.

    For more information about using Compute Engine instances with multiple NICs, see Configure routing for an additional network interface.

  4. Install NFS by running the following commands:

    Debian/Ubuntu

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Debian or Ubuntu.

    sudo apt-get -y update &&
    sudo apt-get install nfs-common

    RHEL/CentOS

    Use the following commands to install NFS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS.

    sudo yum update &&
    sudo yum install nfs-utils

    SUSE

    Use the following commands to install NFS on SUSE.

    sudo zypper update &&
    sudo zypper -n install nfs-client

  5. From the terminal window of the client VM, install autofs:

    Debian/Ubuntu 

    sudo apt-get install autofs

    RHEL/CentOS 

    sudo yum install autofs

    SUSE 

    sudo zypper -n install autofs

Configure autofs to dynamically mount the file share to the client VM

  1. Enable autofs:

    sudo systemctl enable --now autofs

  2. Make a local directory to map to the Filestore file share:

    sudo mkdir -p mount-point-directory

    where mount-point-directory is the directory to create. It must not contain any subdirectories. In this guide, we use /nfs as the mount point directory.

  3. Open the /etc/auto.master file:

    sudo vim /etc/auto.master

  4. Add the following line in the /etc/auto.master file:

    /nfs /etc/auto.nfs --timeout seconds

    where seconds is the duration in seconds before the mount timeout. The default value is 300. Setting this value to 0 disables unmounting by autofs.

  5. Create a file called /etc/auto.nfs:

    sudo vim /etc/auto.nfs

  6. Add the following line in the /etc/auto.nfs file:

    mount-point-subdir options ip-address:/file-share

    where:

    • mount-point-subdir is the subdirectory in /nfs you want to map the Filestore file share to. This subdirectory is dynamically generated and shouldn't exist in the client VM.

    • options are the NFS mount options. We recommend keeping the default NFS mount options, with the following exceptions:

      • For automounting, we recommend specifying -o tcp to reduce the latency when mounting and unmounting.
      • If you are mounting a regional, zonal or enterprise instance to a client VM that's running Linux kernel version 5.3+, consider specifying the nconnect mount option for increased NFS performance. For specific service tiers, we recommend specifying the following number of connections between the client and server:
      Tier Capacity Number of connections
      Regional, zonal 1-9.75 TiB nconnect=2
      Regional, zonal 10-100 TiB nconnect=7
      Enterprise - nconnect=2
      High scale SSD - nconnect=7

      In general, the larger the file share capacity and the fewer the connecting client VMs, the more performance you gain by specifying additional connections with nconnect.

      • ip-address is the IP address for the Filestore instance.
      • file-share is the name of the file share on the instance.

    Example: The following line in /etc/auto.nfs mounts file share vol1 of the Filestore instance with IP address 10.0.0.2 in the dynamically generated subdirectory file-shares with read/write access granted:

    file-shares -rw 10.0.0.2:/vol1

Test your configuration

  1. If the file share is mounted, you need to unmount it:

    sudo umount mount-point-directory

    where mount-point-directory is the path where the Filestore file share is mapped to.

    If there is an /etc/fstab entry that mounts the file share at system boot, make sure to remove it.

  2. Reload autofs:

    sudo service autofs reload

  3. Confirm that your configuration works:

    ls mount-point-directory/mount-point-subdir

    where:

    • mount-point-directory is the mount point directory indicated in the /etc/auto.master file.
    • mount-point-subdir is the mount point subdirectory indicated in the /etc/auto.nfs file.

    From our example, the command would be:

    ls /nfs/file-shares

    If the automount is configured correctly, the system first mounts the file share and then returns the results of the ls command. The file share is automatically unmounted after a period of inactivity, which is defined in the timeout value specified in the /etc/auto.master file.

Windows

Connect to the Windows VM

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to the VM instances page

  2. Locate the Windows VM that you want to use as a client, then click RDP to open a remote desktop connection to that VM. For more information, see Connecting to Windows instances.

Install NFS on the Windows VM

  1. On the Windows VM, open PowerShell as an administrator to ensure proper NFS access and permissions.

  2. In PowerShell, install the NFS client:

    Install-WindowsFeature -Name NFS-Client

  3. Restart the Windows VM instance as prompted, then open a new remote desktop connection.

Configure the user ID used by the NFS client

  1. In PowerShell, run the following commands to create two new registry entries, AnonymousUid and AnonymousGid:

    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClientForNFS\CurrentVersion\Default" `
    -Name "AnonymousUid" -Value "0" -PropertyType DWORD

    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClientForNFS\CurrentVersion\Default" `
    -Name "AnonymousGid" -Value "0" -PropertyType DWORD

  2. Restart the NFS client service:

    nfsadmin client stop

    nfsadmin client start

Map the file share to the Windows VM

  1. Exit PowerShell to leave the administrator's session. If you omit this step, applications running in the standard user's session won't be able to see or access this file share.

    exit

  2. Optional: Mounting a file share on a client VM with multiple network interfaces through a secondary network.

    Details (Click to expand)

    If you want to mount the file share through a secondary network, namely an interface other than nic0, you must modify the client VM's routing policy. Run:

    route -p ^
    add filestore-reserved-address-range ^
    mask address-range-subnet-mask ^
    default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore

    where:

    • filestore-reserved-address-range is the reserved address range for use by the Filestore instance.
    • address-range-subnet-mask is the subnet mask of filestore-reserved-address-range. For example, a /29 reserved address range would use the 255.255.255.248 subnet mask.
    • default-gateway-of-nic-to-filestore is the default gateway IP address of the NIC connected to the VPC network that is shared with the Filestore instance.

    Example:

    route -p add 10.65.21.176 mask 255.255.255.248 10.128.0.1

    For more information about using Compute Engine instances with multiple NICs, see Configure routing for an additional network interface.

  3. From Command Prompt, map the file share to a drive letter:

    net use drive-letter: \\filestore-ip\file-share-name

    where:

    • filestore-ip is the IP address of the Filestore instance.
    • file-share-name is the name of the file share on the Filestore instance.
    • drive-letter is the letter of the drive you want to assign for the mapping.

    Example

    The following command maps file share vol1 on the Filestore instance with the IP address 10.0.0.2 to drive z: on the client Windows VM:

    net use Z: \\10.0.0.2\vol1

  4. Optional: To use NFS file locking, verify the following:

    1. Ensure that the firewall rules are configured for all required NFS ports, including statd and nlockmgr.

    2. Ensure that the Windows NFS client is configured with reserved ports using a command similar to the following in PowerShell:

      nfsadmin client config protocol=tcp UseReservedPorts=yes
nfsadmin client stop
nfsadmin client start

Creating and mounting subdirectories on the file share

Once your file share is mounted on a client VM, you can create subdirectories on the file share, which clients can then mount directly instead of mounting the entire file share:

  1. To create a subdirectory on the mounted file share, run:

    sudo mkdir -p mount-point-directory/file-share-sub-dir

    where:

    • mount-point-directory is the path where you map the file share to.
    • file-share-sub-dir is the path of the subdirectory in the file share that you want to create.

    This command creates the subdirectory on both the client VM and the file share. For example, if you mounted file share 10.0.0.2:/vol1 to the directory /mnt on the client VM, the command sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs creates 10.0.0.2:/vol1/nfs on the file share and /mnt/nfs on the client VM.

  2. Optional: If you want to mount the file share subdirectory to the directory on the client VM where the file share is mounted, you must unmount the file share first:

    sudo umount mount-point-directory

    where mount-point-directory is the directory that the file share is mapped to.

  3. Mount the subdirectory:

    sudo mount ip-address:/file-share/file-share-sub-dir mount-point-directory

    where:

    • ip-address is the IP address for the Filestore instance.
    • file-share is the name of the file share on the instance.
    • file-share-sub-dir is the path of the subdirectory in the file share to mount.
    • mount-point-directory is the path where you want to map the Filestore file share to.

    Example: In the following command:

    sudo mount 10.0.0.2:/vol1/nfs /mnt/nfs
    • 10.0.0.2 is the IP address of the Filestore instance.
    • vol1 is the name of the file share.
    • nfs is a file share subdirectory.
    • /mnt/nfs is the directory on the client VM where the file share subdirectory nfs is mapped to.

What's next