Mount NFS File System Over a Slow and Busy Network

Traffic between my home and office data center encrypted using VPN but sometime my ISP get little slow or network becomes busy. I'm using Fedora Core Linux desktop system and my system freezes for a few minutes. What optimization options should be used when mounting an exported NFS share over a slow and busy network?

Generally, you will see server not responding message or computer just freezes. You can pass the following option while mounting remote shared/exported NFS server:

soft: This option allows the kernel to time out if the nfs server is not responding for some time. The time can be specified with timeo=time. This option might be useful if your nfs server sometimes doesn’t respond or will be rebooted while some process tries to get a file from the server.
timeo N: This timeout value is expressed in tenths of a second
retrans : The number of timeouts allowed before the client gives up and displays the Server not responding message. The mount fails soon after.
proto tcp/udp: The protocol (Either TCP or UDP) used when attempting to mount the server.

For example:
# mount -t nfs -o soft,timeo=900,retrans=3,vers=3, proto=tcp remotenfsserver:/home/data /mnt/nfs-mnt-point
OR
# mount.nfs4 -o soft,timeo=900,retrans=3,vers=3, proto=tcp nas01:/data /data

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This FAQ entry is 9 of 14 in the "Linux / UNIX NFS File Server Tutorial" series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Mikhail March 11, 2011 at 1:09 pm: Hello!
timeo=900 is many, use timeo=5 !!
2 Reese April 21, 2011 at 2:08 pm: The Linux manpage for MOUNT_NFS(8) specifically states that changing the timeo value is useful when optimizing UDP mounts. If the timeo value only affects UDP mounts specifying “proto=tcp” would make the value for timeo moot would it not?

Mount NFS File System Over a Slow and Busy Network

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