What are rpc.statd and portmap?

abefroman · 10-16-2009, 10:12 PM

What are rpc.statd and portmap?

On a new server, there is a port open with them running.

Do I want to leave them running or should I stop them?

Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:873 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2387/rpc.statd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2346/portmap

mesiol · 10-17-2009, 01:28 AM

Hi,

did you have checked the man page for both processes? This will explain in detail what you are asking for.

abefroman · 10-17-2009, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mesiol

Hi,

did you have checked the man page for both processes? This will explain in detail what you are asking for.

Thanks, but I have no idea what this means:

Code:

     Portmap is a server that converts RPC program numbers into DARPA protocol port numbers.  It must be running in order to
     make RPC calls.

     When an RPC server is started, it will tell portmap what port number it is listening to, and what RPC program numbers it
     is prepared to serve.  When a client wishes to make an RPC call to a given program number, it will first contact portmap
     on the server machine to determine the port number where RPC packets should be sent.

     Portmap must be started before any RPC servers are invoked.

And rpc.statd seems like it is just for NFS, is that correct?

reickler · 10-17-2009, 11:00 AM

They're used by NFS (and maybe a few other services?). As I understand it to work, portmap accepts inbound requests on a single port and redistributes ("maps") them to the correct internal service. The rcp.statd keeps track of which ports each of the internal services are using. I guess it's supposed to minimize the number of "holes" you have to open in your firewall.