Firewall problems with NFS

[Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak]

Bill Davidsen wrote:
> I have a firewall problem with running an NFS server on FC6 or FC8, due 
> to the GUI configuration interface not opening the firewall when I check 
> the NFS protocol support. It seems to only allow use as an NFS client, 
> since that worked fine when I tested it.
> 
> I can put the needed rules in the "RH-Firewall-1-INPUT" chain, but 
> mixing GUI administration and manual administration is undesirable to 
> prevent unexpected behavior, conflicts, etc, in the future. Is there 
> really no way to open the ports for NFS server other than by hand?

Opening NFS servers is tricky - the default GUI is too simple to do it well.

You'll probably need to:

1) Learn about port "pinning" for NFS (so it always uses the same ports).

2) Use a fancier GUI, like firestarter (http://www.fs-security.com/), to 
control your firewall.

NFS is insecure anyways, so you'll want to have another firewall outside 
  the client network also. Do not expose the NFS server to public access.

- Mike