I have an NIS server running on RH 7.1. I have a collection of Linux hosts configured via NFS to export /home partitions within our lab. These hosts run RH6.2, RH7.2, RH7.3, RH8.0, and Fedora Core 1 & 2.

All of the hosts are happy to export the designated directories to each other _except_ for the Fedora 2 system. I finally traced the problem down to the exports file:

If I use the standard (standard for ou lab, that is) exports file:

/home @LABHOSTS(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

then any host gets a "permission denied" error when they attempt to mount the Fedora 2's exported partition.

However, if I change the entry to

#/home @LABHOSTS(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
/home 123.45.6.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

and restart nfs then the Fedora 2 system behaves properly (assume the bogus IP address in this example is a valid subnet specifier): any of the other hosts can mount the /home directory on the Fedora 2 host.

Yes, the NIS maps and server are working properly otherwise. No, it's not a firewall issue. It doesn't seem to be a user permissions problem, either

As far as I can tell from the documentation a netgroup references is still a valid way to specify groups of hosts. Any idea why this isn't working for Fedora 2, and any suggestions on how to fix it?

You haven't gotten any hits, so I will toss out some thoughts.

The problem appears to be tied to name resolution. You are apparently using NIS for name resolution. Is /etc/nsswitch.conf properly configured to use NIS for this on your Fedora 2 system? Does your Fedora 2 system properly resolve names in your netgroup otherwise, both partially and fully qualified domain names?

Bingo. Every entry in the Fedora 2 system's nsswitch.conf had been properly updated to use nis -- except for netgroup.

I was certainly running down the wrong trail: the manpage for exportfs indicated changes between kernel 2.4 and 2.6, and Fedora Core 2 makes that kernel jump. I was convinced the problem I saw was related to that.

Thanks Idaho!