Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4) Internet Drafts

      
 Internationalization for the NFSv4 Protocols
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-internationalization-13.txt
 Date: 15/08/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document describes the handling of internationalization for all NFSv4 protocols, including NFSv4.0, NFSv4.1, NFSv4.2 and extensions thereof, and future minor versions. It updates RFC7530 and RFC8881.
 ACLs within the NFSv4 Protocols
 
 draft-dnoveck-nfsv4-acls-07.txt
 Date: 24/05/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document is part of the set of documents intended to update the description of NFSv4 Minor Version One as part of the rfc5661bis respecification effort for NFSv4.1. It describes the structure and function of NFsv4 Access Control Lists within all existing minor versions of NFSv4. It describes the structure of NFSv4 ACLs and their role in the NFSv4 security architecture. While the focus of this document is on the role of ACLs in providing a more flexible approach to file access authorization than is made available by the POSIX-derived authorization-related attributes, the potential provision of other security-related functionality is covered as well. [Consensus Needed (Item #117a)]: Because of the failure of previous specifications to provide a satisfactory approach to either of the two ACL models for which support was originally intended, this document clarifies the status of draft-POSIX ACLs, with the expectation that support for these might be provided via a later extension. In addition, this document will include some small protocol extensions to correct protocol defects, as provided for in RFC8178. [Consensus Needed (Item #117a)]: In this document, the relationship among the multiple ACL models for which support was intended has changed. A core set of functionality, shared in large part with that derived from a subset of the functionality provided by the now- withdrawn draft-POSIX ACLs is presented as the conceptual base of the feature set. Additional sets of features used to provide the functionality within the NFSv4 ACL model and the full draft-POSIX ACL model are considered as OPTIONAL extensions to that core, with the latter not yet present in NFsv4.1. [RFC Editor: please remove this parapgraph and the following paragraph prior to publishing this document as an RFC]. The current version of the document is intended, in large part, to result in working group discussion regarding repairing problems with previous specifications of ACL-related features and to enable work to provide a greater degree of interoperability than has been available heretofore. The drafts provide a framework for addressing these issues and obtaining working group consensus regarding changes that will be necesasary before publication of RFCTBD10. When the resulting document is eventually published as an RFC, it will supersede the descriptions of ACL structure and semantics appearing in existing minor version specification documents for NFSv4.0 and NFSv4.1, thereby updating RFC7530 and RFC8881.
 POSIX Draft ACL support for Network File System Version 4,Minor Version 2
 
 draft-rmacklem-nfsv4-posix-acls-12.txt
 Date: 12/06/2025
 Authors: Rick Macklem
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document describes a potential protocol extension involving the addition of four new attributes to be used by servers to provide support for POSIX ACLs. The term POSIX ACLs refers to the ACL component of the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) 1003.1e draft 17 document for which sponsorship was withdrawn in January 1998. Although the draft POSIX standard that describes these ACLs was never ratified, several POSIX-based operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD include support for them. The NFS Version 4 (NFSv4) ACLs described in Network File System (NFS) Version 4 Minor Version 1 henceforth referred to as NFSv4 ACLs, use a different model and attempts to map between the ACLs of these two models have not been completely successful. In order to adequately support POSIX ACLs, this document proposes four new attributes that may optionally be used by an NFS Version 4, minor version 2 (NFSv4.2) server to support ACLs that conform to the aforementioned POSIX 1003.1e draft 17.
 Network File System (NFS) Version 4 Minor Version 1 Protocol
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-rfc8881bis-01.txt
 Date: 12/10/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document describes the Network File System (NFS) version 4 minor version 1, including features retained from the base protocol (NFS version 4 minor version 0, which is specified in RFC 7530) and protocol extensions made and part of Minor Version 1. The later minor version has no dependencies on NFS version 4 minor version 0, and was, until recently, documented as a completely separate protocol. This document is part of a set of documents which collectively obsolete RFCs 8881 and 8434. In addition to many corrections and clarifications, it will rely on NFSv4-wide documents to substantially revise the treatment of protocol extension, internationalization, and security, superseding the descriptions of those aspects of the protocol appearing in RFCs 5661 and 8881.

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Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)

WG Name Network File System Version 4
Acronym nfsv4
Area Web and Internet Transport (wit)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-nfsv4-07 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources GitHub NFSv4 hub
Issue tracker
Wiki
Zulip stream
Personnel Chairs Brian Pawlowski, Christopher Inacio
Area Director Gorry Fairhurst
Tech Advisor Leif Johansson
Secretary Thomas Haynes
Mailing list Address nfsv4@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/nfsv4
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/nfsv4/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/nfsv4

Charter for Working Group

Network File System version 4 (NFSv4) is an IETF standard for file
sharing.

To maintain NFS Version 4's utility and currency, the NFSv4 working
group is chartered to maintain the existing NFSv4.0, NFSv4.1, and
NFSv4.2 protocols and specifications of related ONC components, such as
those defining RPC, XDR, and RPCSECGSS.

The NFSv4 working group is also responsible for maintenance and
extension of the RDMA protocols originally developed by the
now-concluded RDDP WG (RFCs 5040-5045, e.g., RDMAP, DDP and MPA) ,
whose maintenance and extension were previously handled by the
now-concluded STORM WG.

In addition, extensions will be developed, as necessary, to correct
problems with the protocols as currently specified, to accommodate
needed file system semantics, and to respond to technological
developments in the areas of networking and persistent storage/memory.

Maintenance

The working group's experience has been that, as NFSv4 implementations
mature and deployments continue, clarifications and corrections to
existing RFCs are needed.

These specification updates help vendors in delivering high-quality and
interoperable implementations.

The NFSv4 working group is chartered with vetting reported issues and
determining correctness of submitted errata.

In addition, some areas may need more concentrated work to correct the
specifications already published, to deal with unanticipated
interactions between features, or to respond to evolving expectations
with regard to areas such as security. Since necessary changes in such
cases are generally not appropriate for the errata system, the working
group will assist in publication of new RFCs that provide implementation
guidance, editorial modification or technical updates to existing RFCs.

Since the new NFSv4 versioning framework has been approved, these
technical updates to NFSv4 minor versions could include limited XDR
changes.

Extensions

The NFSv4 protocol is designed to allow extension by the definition of
new operations, new attributes, and new Parallel NFS layout types, as
well as the creation of minor versions.

Similarly, associated ONC protocol components that have a versioning/
extension framework can be incrementally extended, when necessary.

The working group will discuss proposals for such extensions and assure
that they have adequate technical review, including discussion of their
interaction with existing features, before adopting them as working
group items and helping to draft specification documents.

Some likely motivations for such extensions would be to:

  • Maximize NFS performance on advanced network fabrics.

  • Accommodate new storage technologies.

  • Provide facilities useful in management of NFS-accessed storage in
    large-scale virtualization environments.

  • Provide more effective NFS response to security challenges.

New milestones that fall within the scope specified in this charter can
be added to the list below after working group consensus and upon
approval by the responsible Area Director.

The WG will extend RDMA to enhance the Memory Placement operations
such as Flush, Atomic Write and Validation using Integrity Signatures.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Nov 2026 Submit Flex File v2 to IESG for publication draft-haynes-nfsv4-flex-filesv2
draft-haynes-nfsv4-flexfiles-v2
Jul 2026 Submit final draft of rfc5661bis draft-ietf-nfsv4-rfc5661bis
Dec 2025 Submit POSIX ACL to IESG for publication draft-rmacklem-nfsv4-posix-acls
Aug 2025 Submit final document describing NFSv4 security.
Dec 2024 NFSv4 Internationalization draft-ietf-nfsv4-internationalization