Maaz Anjum's Blog

Starting NFS quotas: Cannot register service: RPC: Unable to receive; errno = Connection refused

While trying to setup NFS on an OVM 3.2 configuration on OEL 5.9, I followed the documentation to the letter but when time came to start the NFS daemon I kept getting the error above.

[root@ovm /]# service nfs start
Starting NFS services: [ OK ]
Starting NFS quotas: Cannot register service: RPC: Unable to receive; errno = Connection refused
rpc.rquotad: unable to register (RQUOTAPROG, RQUOTAVERS, udp).
[FAILED]
Starting NFS daemon: [FAILED]

After a little googling, it turns out that RPCBind may not be running.

[root@ovm /]# rpcinfo -p
rpcinfo: can't contact portmapper: RPC: Remote system error - Connection refused

Perhaps I needed to update my NFS Utility packages?

[root@ovm /]# yum install nfs-utils
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
You can use up2date --register to register.
ULN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package nfs-utils.x86_64 1:1.0.9-70.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: initscripts >= 8.45.43 for package: nfs-utils
--> Running transaction check
---> Package initscripts.x86_64 0:8.45.44-3.0.1.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================================================================================================
Updating:
nfs-utils x86_64 1:1.0.9-70.el5 el5_latest 409 k
Updating for dependencies:
initscripts x86_64 8.45.44-3.0.1.el5 el5_latest 1.6 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================================================================================================
Install 0 Package(s)
Upgrade 2 Package(s)

Total download size: 2.0 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): nfs-utils-1.0.9-70.el5.x86_64.rpm | 409 kB 00:00 
(2/2): initscripts-8.45.44-3.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm | 1.6 MB 00:01 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 598 kB/s | 2.0 MB 00:03 
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Updating : initscripts 1/4 
warning: /etc/sysctl.conf created as /etc/sysctl.conf.rpmnew
Updating : nfs-utils 2/4 
Cleanup : nfs-utils 3/4 
Cleanup : initscripts 4/4

Updated:
nfs-utils.x86_64 1:1.0.9-70.el5

Dependency Updated:
initscripts.x86_64 0:8.45.44-3.0.1.el5

Complete!

Then I tried the RPC info command again, but no luck!

[root@ovm /]# rpcinfo -p
rpcinfo: can't contact portmapper: RPC: Remote system error - Connection refused

Portmap? Oh, that would explain a lot since NFS apparently requires port mapper service to run.

[root@ovm /]# chkconfig portmap on
[root@ovm yum.repos.d]# service portmap start

Try RPC info again. Aha, that did it!

[root@ovm yum.repos.d]# rpcinfo -p
program vers proto port
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper

Finally, restart the NFS Service and set it to autostart.

[root@ovm /]# service nfs start
Starting NFS services: [ OK ]
Starting NFS quotas: [ OK ]
Starting NFS daemon: [ OK ]
Starting NFS mountd: [ OK ]
[root@ovm /]# chkconfig nfs on

Hope this was helpful!

Cheers!