Synced folders with NFS

NFS is a faster way of sharing your project’s files between host and guests that sync the files instantly.

To use NFS with Vagrant, nfs-utils package needs to be installed and nfs-server needs to be running. If it is not, run:

$ sudo dnf install nfs-utils && sudo systemctl enable nfs-server

Afterwards enable nfs, rpc-bind and mountd services for firewalld:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=libvirt --add-service=nfs3 \
    && sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=libvirt --add-service=nfs \
    && sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=libvirt --add-service=rpc-bind \
    && sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=libvirt --add-service=mountd \
    && sudo firewall-cmd --reload

You need these services added for the zone you will run your virtual bridge (should be FedoraWorkstation as default).

Once done, :nfs can be used as an option for files sync in project’s Vagrantfile as follows:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  # ...

  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "nfs"
end

One of the common errors when using NFS this way might be that your NFS version does not support UDP protocol which gets added by Vagrant as a default.

In that case the error message is mount.nfs: requested NFS version or transport protocol is not supported. You can work around this by disabling UDP with nfs_udp option:

config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "nfs", nfs_udp: false

Using NFS shares from Vagrant without password prompts

To not enter password many times a day when using NFS, put the following inside your /etc/sudoers file by running sudo visudo (do not try to edit the file directly, visudo will check that the content of the file is correct before saving):

# Allow Vagrant to manage /etc/exports
Cmnd_Alias VAGRANT_EXPORTS_CHOWN = /bin/chown 0\:0 /tmp/vagrant-exports
Cmnd_Alias VAGRANT_EXPORTS_MV = /bin/mv -f /tmp/vagrant-exports /etc/exports
Cmnd_Alias VAGRANT_NFSD_CHECK = /usr/bin/systemctl status --no-pager nfs-server.service
Cmnd_Alias VAGRANT_NFSD_START = /usr/bin/systemctl start nfs-server.service
Cmnd_Alias VAGRANT_NFSD_APPLY = /usr/sbin/exportfs -ar
%vagrant ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: VAGRANT_NFSD_CHECK, VAGRANT_NFSD_START, VAGRANT_NFSD_APPLY, VAGRANT_EXPORTS_CHOWN, VAGRANT_EXPORTS_MV

Afterwards add yourself to the vagrant group if you are not there already by running:

$ sudo getent group vagrant >/dev/null || sudo groupadd -r vagrant
$ sudo gpasswd -a ${USER} vagrant
$ sudo -u ${USER} ${SHELL}

Authors: Antonín Mrkvica, Jarek Prokop, Josef Strzibny, Michal Bocek, Pavel Valena