Linux OS Service ‘rpcgssd’

This service manages RPCSEC GSS contexts for the NFSv4 client, which provides support on the client side for RPCSEC_GSS protocol. It will start rpc.gssd daemon to communicate with server-side rpcsec_gss daemon rpc.svcgssd. If using NFSv4, it is needed.

The rpcsec_gss protocol gives a means of using the gss-api generic security api to provide security for protocols using rpc (in particular, nfs). Before exchanging any rpc requests using rpcsec_gss, the rpc client must first establish a security context. The Linux kernel’s implementation of rpcsec_gss depends on the userspace daemon rpc.gssd to establish security contexts. The rpc.gssd daemon uses files in the rpc_pipefs filesystem to communicate with the kernel.

Rpc.gssd is the client-side implementation of RPCSEC_GSS protocol. Any applications which use RPCSEC_GSS security mechanism should call gss-api application interface to establish a secure connection with the servers.

The PRM package containing this service:

# yum install nfs-utils

Service Control

This service is handled by the “service” or “systemctl” command. Its usage is as follows:

# service rpcgssd          # CentOS/RHEL 6
Usage:  {start|stop|restart|condstart|condrestart|status}

Start the service as follows:

# service rpcgssd start        # CentOS/RHEL 6
# systemctl start rpcgssd      # CentOS/RHEL 7

Stop the service as follows:

# service rpcgssd stop        # CentOS/RHEL 6
# systemctl stop rpcgssd      # CentOS/RHEL 7

Restart the service like this:

# service rpcgssd restart        # CentOS/RHEL 6
# systemctl restart rpcgssd      # CentOS/RHEL 7

If the service is started, then restart it; otherwise do nothing.

# service rpcgssd condrestart

As start command does, condstart command also starts rpcgssd daemon.

# service rpcgssd condstart

Check if the service is started or stopped:

# service rpcgssd status        # CentOS/RHEL 6
# systemctl status rpcgssd      # CentOS/RHEL 7

Query runlevel information for the service:

# chkconfig --list rpcgssd         # CentOS/RHEL 6
rpcgssd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
# systemctl is-enabled rpcgssd     # CentOS/RHEL 7
static

Configuration

There are no configuration files for this service. As mentioned above, the service will communicate with the kernel via rpc_pipefs filesystem. The default value is “/var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs“. You also can tell rpc.gssd where to look for the rpc_pipefs filesystem using -k option to rpc.gssd.