By default, Direct NFS attempts to serve mount entries that are found in /etc/fstab. You can use oranfstab to specify additional Oracle-specific options to Direct NFS. For example, you can use oranfstab to specify additional paths for a mount point. Additionally, a new Oracle-specific file oranfstab can be added to either /etc or to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs. When oranfstab is placed in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs, its entries are specific to a single database. However, when oranfstab is placed in /etc, it is global to all Oracle databases, and hence can contain mount points for all Oracle databases. Direct NFS determines mount point settings to NFS storage devices based on the configurations in /etc/mtab.

Direct NFS uses the first matched entry as the mount point. In all cases, Oracle requires that mount points be mounted by the kernel NFS system even when being served through Direct NFS. Oracle verifies kernel NFS mounts by cross-checking entries in oranfstab with operating system NFS mount points. If a mismatch exists, then Direct NFS logs an informational message, and does not serve the NFS server.

Here is an example of oranfstab:

[orahost1]# cat $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/oranfstab
server: cnfs-1.engba.symantec.com
path: virtual_IP
export:/oranfsdata  mount:/oranfsdata
export:/oranfsarch  mount:/oranfsarch