16.2.1. Mounting NFS File Systems using /etc/fstab
An alternate way to mount an NFS share from another machine is to add
a line to the /etc/fstab file. The line must
state the hostname of the NFS server, the directory on the server
being exported, and the directory on the local machine where the NFS
share is to be mounted. You must be root to modify the
/etc/fstab file.
The general syntax for the line in /etc/fstab is
as follows:
server:/usr/local/pub /pub nfs rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr |
The mount point /pub must exist on the client
machine. After adding this line to /etc/fstab on
the client system, type the command mount /pub at
a shell prompt, and the mount point /pub will be
mounted from the server.
16.2.2. Mounting NFS File Systems using autofs
A third option for mounting an NFS share is the use of autofs. Autofs
uses the automount daemon to manage your mount points by only mounting
them dynamically when they are accessed.
Autofs consults the master map configuration file
/etc/auto.master to determine which mount points
are defined. It then starts an automount process with the appropriate
parameters for each mount point. Each line in the master map defines a
mount point and a separate map file that defines the file systems to
be mounted under this mount point. For example, the
/etc/auto.misc file might define mount points in
the /misc directory; this relationship would be
defined in the /etc/auto.master file.
Each entry in auto.master has three fields. The
first field is the mount point. The second field is the location of
the map file, and the third field is optional. The third field can
contain information such as a timeout value.
For example, to mount the directory /proj52 on
the remote machine penguin.example.net at the mount point
/misc/myproject on your machine, add the following
line to auto.master:
/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout 60 |
Add the following line to /etc/auto.misc:
myproject -rw,soft,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 penguin.example.net:/proj52 |
The first field in /etc/auto.misc is the name of
the /misc subdirectory. This directory is created
dynamically by automount. It should not actually exist on the
client machine. The second field contains mount options such as rw
for read and write access. The third field is the location of the NFS
export including the hostname and directory.
 | Note |
|---|
| | The directory /misc must exist on the local
file system. There should be no subdirectories in
/misc on the local file system.
|
Autofs is a service. To start the service, at a shell prompt, type the
following commands:
/sbin/service autofs restart |
To view the active mount points, type the following command at a shell
prompt:
/sbin/service autofs status |
If you modify the /etc/auto.master configuration
file while autofs is running, you must tell the automount daemon(s)
to reload by typing the following command at a shell prompt:
/sbin/service autofs reload |
To learn how to configure autofs to start at boot time, refer to Chapter 14 Controlling Access to Services for information on managing services.
