Setting Up The Automounter Service on RHEL
Mounting filesystems in RHEL is pretty straightforward and easy. Occasionally, however, you will not want the filesystem to remain mounted all the time, but rather to automatically mount for a set period of time only when it is needed. Because of networking overhead, and the general unreliability of networks, NFS mounts are a good example of when this can be especially useful.
In order to manage the automatic mounting and unmounting of filesystems on RHEL, we use the Automounter service. Here is how.
First, The main configuration file is “/etc/auto.master”. It should look something like this:
#
# $Id: auto.master,v 1.3 2003/09/29 08:22:35 raven Exp $
#
# Sample auto.master file
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# For details of the format look at autofs(5).
#/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout=60
#/misc /etc/auto.misc
#/net /etc/auto.net
Let’s assume that we want to set up an NFS mount on “/misc/backups”. We would first create an entry in this file that looks something like this:
/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout=120
This tells the autofs service that we want to use it to manage mounts from within “/misc”, that the configuration file is “/etc/auto.misc”, and that it should disconnect after 2 minuets of inactivity.
Now, let’s edit the “/etc/auto.misc” file. The file has three columns: the mount point from within the /misc directory, the options for mounting the filesystem, and the filesystem to be mounted. It also includes the remote server’s name since we are using NFS. It should look something like this when you are done:
#
# $Id: auto.misc,v 1.2 2003/09/29 08:22:35 raven Exp $
#
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# Details may be found in the autofs(5) manpage
cd -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom
backups -rw,soft,intr remoteservername:/path/to/nfs/export
# the following entries are samples to pique your imagination
#linux -ro,soft,intr ftp.example.org:/pub/linux
#boot -fstype=ext2 :/dev/hda1
#floppy -fstype=auto :/dev/fd0
#floppy -fstype=ext2 :/dev/fd0
#e2floppy -fstype=ext2 :/dev/fd0
#jaz -fstype=ext2 :/dev/sdc1
#removable -fstype=ext2 :/dev/hdd
Next, we create the directory for the mount point in /misc:
# mkdir /misc/backups
And finally we restart the autofs service:
# service autofs restart
That should pretty much do it. If you don’t have autofs configured to start up, you can use chkconfig to enable it. “/misc/backups” will now be mounted whenever a user or process attempts to access data on it, and it will be automatically disconnected after 120 seconds of inactivity. Last, but not least, you can always confirm that it is running with the “service” command:
# service autofs status
As always, change the details to match your own requirements.
Discuss This Article
Post Tags (user submitted): automounter (15) - rhel4 autofs (12) - rhel crontab (11) - rhel4 automount (10) - automount cdrom rhel (8) - t (8) - rhel5 automount (8) - RHEL automount (8) - automount rhel 5 (7) - rhel 5 automounter (7) - rhel5 mount cdrom (7) - RHEL4 crontab (7) - rhel automount cdrom (7) - autofs rhel4 (6) - rhel autofs (6) - rhel4 auto.net (6) - RHEL4 + NFS (5) - mss (5) - autofs howto (5) - rhel services (5) - rhel5 autofs (4) - automount rhel (4) - RHEL automount cd (4) - automount rhel4 (4) - RHEL automounter (4) - /etc/auto.net (4) - auto.master (4) - autofs RHEL (4) - nfs rhel howto (4) - auto.net nfs (3) - how to mount cdrom in rhel5 (3) - automount cd RHEL (3) - RHEL 5 automount (3) - crontab RHEL (3) - rhel5 automounter (3) - mount cdrom rhel (3) - rhel5 autofs howto (3) - rhel automount auto.direct (3) - rhel automount howto (3) - rhel4 service (3) - auto.net rhel (3) - rhel4 services (3) - rhel autofs howto (3) - rhel auto.direct (3) - rhel 5 mount cdrom (3) - linux automount rhel (2) - rhel auto.net (2) - RHEL4 automount cdrom (2) - automounting in RHEL 5 (2) - service command rhel (2) - rhel5 auto.net (2) - howto autofs /net (2) - automount rhel 4 (2) - mount ftp in rhel (2) - rhel automount restart (2) - RHEL autofs example (2) - automount service rhel (2) - crontab format rhel (2) - Rhel 5 cdrom mounting (2) - rhel4 nfs automount (2) - rhel4 auto.direct (2) - rhel5 net automount (2) - automount cd rhel 3 (2) - rhel 5 crontab (2) - rhel, automount service (2) - crontab in RHEL5 (2) - Mounting CDrom RHEL5 (2) - rhel5 automount cdrom (2) - autofs rhel4 options (2) - howto configure autofs in RHEL AS4 (2) - setting up autofs with rhel 5 (2) - crontab rhel4 (2) - +rhel +"auto mount" (2) - can not mount cd rhel 4 (2) - auto.net automount (2) - cron format howto (2) - autofs RHEL 4 (2) - mount cdrom rhel5 (2) - mounting CD in rhel (2) - rhel automount auto direct (2) - rhel service command (2) - Setting up autofs (2) - Automount RHEL5 (2) - rhel5 mount floppy (2) - chkconfig mount (2) - rhel automatically mount cdrom (2) - solaris (2) - automounting on RHEL AS4 (2) - automount rhel cdrom (2) - /ETC/AUTO.MISC (2) - autofs direct mapping RHEL5 (2) - RHEL5 "/misc" directory (2) - rhel not automounting cd (2) - automount options RHEL 4 (2) - RHEL 5 auto.misc (2) - nfs (2) - mount cdrom in RHEL (2) - autofs-5 rpm (2) - automounter RHEL4 (2) - rhel4 autofs ghost (2) - setting up nfs rhel (2) - auto.direct RHEL (2) - linux rhel4 automount (2) - rhel (2) - RHEL5 auto.master (2) - rhel 4 automount (2) - rhel 4 crontab (1) - automounting CDROM in RHEL5 (1) - setting up autofs NFS mounts (1) - restart automount service (1) - setting autofs (1) - linux automount net (1) - linux automount nfs on boot bash script (1) - cdrom automount rhel5 (1) - solaris 10 automount cdrom /dev/cdrom (1) - linux nfs /etc/auto.net (1) - linux configure auto direct maps (1) - cdrom not auto mount solaris 8 (1) - NFS automount solaris located (1) - automount examples (1) - automount service in linux (1) - linux "/net" auto.master (1) - linux automount solaris (1) - example mount rhel4 + 2003 (1) - linux start service automount (1) - automount howto rhel 5 (1) - rhel remove cd from automount (1) - how to mount cdrom in RHEL 5 (1) - rhel5 cdrom does not mount (1) - enable /net auto.master Redhat EL 5 (1) - cron example rhel (1) - enabling ftp services in RHEL AS 4 (1) - auto.misc soft intr (1) - automount auto.net timeout (1) - service for automount (1) - crontab format boot (1) - rhel4 start automount (1) - RHEL 3 nfs version 3 mount (1) - rhel4 direct mount auto.direct (1) - rhel4 direct mount (1) - /net -hosts auto.master (1) - rhel 5 drive automount (1) - rhel 5 how to mount floppy? (1) - automount direct links (1) - rhel4 cannot automount cd (1) - rhel4 set up nfs server (1) - autofs rhel4 howto (1) - RHEL4 (1) - autofs /net on RHEL5 (1) - RHEL4 mount NFS at boot (1) -
About a year ago I was looking for just such a mechanism, but I never found out about autofs. What I did was put “0 * * * * /bin/mount -a -t nfs” in root’s crontab. It’s ugly, and I think I’ll replace it with autofs.
I’m glad it was helpful Mike… By the way, what happened to your blog?
Thanks!!
My wife is much happier about editing our website now!