NFS vs CIFS – Are you confused to choose between them? We can help you.

CIFS stands for Common Internet File System and NFS stands for Network File System. These are the protocols used for enabling remote communication systems.

The main difference between these two is that CIFS can only be used in Windows operating systems, whereas NFS can be used in UNIX and LINUX-based systems.

Here at Bobcares, we handle servers with NFS and CIFS as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today let’s compare the performance of NFS and CIFS.

NFS vs CIFS

Following are some of the comparisons between CIFS and NFS:

1. Port Protocols

CIFS works on TCP ports of 139 and 445 and UDP ports on 138 and 137.

NFS server uses port 111 for both TCP and UDP. It operates on the 2049 port for UDP and TCP.

For viewing the cluster and client status it accesses port 1110 TCP and UDP. And we can access NFS lock manager by port 4045 of TCP and UDP.

2. Communication Features

CIFS makes communication chaos.

NFS makes mess communication but not as poor as CIFS.

3. Requirement of Sessions

CIFS provides requirement sessions.

NFS does not provide requirement sessions.

4. Security

CIFS has many more advanced security features and reliable than NFS.

NFS is not a reliable protocol and does not provide any special security features.

5. Scalable

CIFS has low scalability features.

NFS is highly scalable than CIFS.

6. Speed

The communication speed of CIFS is moderate than NFS.

NFS offers a high communication speed.

7. Implementation

CIFS has a complicated configuration and very difficult to diagnose any faults.

NFS is a simple and easy installation. NFS is user-friendly with its simple executing commands.

8. File Naming

On the user and file-sharing protocol CIFS, the file name conversions and enabling the file characters are completely dependent. CHARMAP is used in CIFS.

In NFS the file naming and characterizing is not as easy as CIFS. The legacy file names that comprise certain characters are not valid in operating systems.

9. LDAP Services

CIFS can enable LDAP services to store and access the database.

In NFS, to view the information by LDAP servers we use the configuration system adapted for storage.

10. Transportation

CIFS is generally used for direct hosting and NetBIOS dependent transport over IP and TCP protocols. NFS is a transport dependent protocol and offers a high rate of communication speed.

Conclusion

To conclude we saw NFS vs CIFS performance in today’s article.