It’s the configuration negotiation daemon for NFSv4.1 and later, specifically for pNFS (parallel NFS) and flex files . The Old Way vs. The New Way Traditionally, an NFS client learned everything about a mount from a single server. That server told the client: “Here are your files, here are your permissions.”
nfsstat -m | grep -i "layout" If you see layout=flexfiles or layout=files , nfs-cfged is earning its keep. Nfs-cfged
With (Parallel NFS), the game changes. The metadata server says: “Don’t talk to me for data. Here’s a list of storage devices. Go talk to them directly.” It’s the configuration negotiation daemon for NFSv4
sudo systemctl restart nfs-client # or on older systems: sudo service nfs-common restart Note: This will unmount all NFS shares. Use with caution. To prevent nfs-cfged from starting at boot (and save a few MB of RAM): That server told the client: “Here are your
sudo systemctl mask nfs-config.service sudo systemctl stop nfs-config On non-systemd distros, you may need to remove the init script or comment out relevant lines in /etc/default/nfs-common . Think of a traditional NFS server as a librarian who both helps you find a book and hands it to you.
If you’ve spent any time poking around the process tree on a modern Linux machine (especially RHEL/CentOS 7+ or Fedora), you’ve probably spotted a mysterious process called nfs-cfged .
It sits there, using almost no CPU and very little memory. It’s easy to ignore—but when NFS mounts start acting up, knowing what this process does can save you hours of head-scratching.