I have a problem with my nfs server i have started the nfs daemon and allowed access to the service at the fire wall.When i try to mount my nfs share from another linux box (both are fedora 8) i get the error mount failed no route to host.
What could be the problem?

Can you ping from the other box to the server?

How are the machines connected?

Yeah i can ping the hosts,i have them connected in a network that i have set up in vmware.

first, try to stop the firewall & let see if that is firewall rules issue.

To open nfs service to other with firewall, u have to open several port such as:
- nfs (2049)
- portmap (111)
- rpc.mountd (custom)
- rpc.quotad (custom)
- rpc.statd (custom)
- rpc.lockd (custom)

I have checked and ensured that those ports are open using nmap and telnet,here is an excerpt of the error message that am getting:

[root@redhat etc]# mount fedora:/Desktop/tools /mnt/fedora
mount to NFS server 'fedora' failed: server is down.

yet nfs is up and running.

First check if nfsd, portmap and rpc.* daemons are running. If they are, make a telnet connection to port 2049 from your NFS client machine to your NFS Server, nothin will happen in your client, but in your server you can check your tcp port 2049 with:

netstat -n -tcp

The state must be ESTABLISHED

If you can not establish a connection to the port, maybe you have a iptables blocking, check it:

iptables -L

If there is not rules that block anything, maybe could be a vmware issue... but in this case I can't help you... I don't have vmware

I now have a new error the server now replies permission denied when i try to mount the share.The seetings for the share have the permissins (rw)
i dont know what is wrong now!

can u post your firewall config and /etc/exportfs file ?

here are my firewall settings and exportfs:

1
[root@fedora ~]# iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:sunrpc
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:nfs
RH-Firewall-1-INPUT 0 -- anywhere anywhere

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT 0 -- anywhere anywhere
REJECT 0 -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain RH-Firewall-1-INPUT (1 references)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT 0 -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT icmp -- anywhere anywhere icmp any
ACCEPT esp -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT ah -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere 224.0.0.251 udp dpt:mdns
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere anywhere udp dpt:ipp
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ipp
ACCEPT 0 -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ftp
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:smtp
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:nfs
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ssh
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:http
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:1024
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW udp dpt:domain
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:domain
REJECT 0 -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

/root/Desktop/tools redhat.localdomain,192.168.91.128(rw,sync,all_squash,anonuid=500,anongid=500) redhat.localdomain(rw,insecure,sync,all_squash,anonuid=501,anongid=501)

ok... see my post above about port must to be opened.

on your iptables rules you only open portmap and nfs (111 and 2049).

on fedora, there is a nfs config in /etc/sysconfig/nfs, modify the port i have been mention from earlier post.

you can modify the port from 4002-4005, so you can easily put in on rule in iptables.

after you modify it, restart the nfs service, you can confirm your setting with netstat -ntl for tcp and netstat -nul for udp, you should see it.

then add 2 lines to firewall for tcp and udp :
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 4002:4005 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p udp -m state --state NEW -m udp --dport 4002:4005 -j ACCEPT