AutoFS

You can mount NFS file systems by using a client-side service called automounting, or AutoFS, which enables a system to automatically mount and unmount NFS file systems whenever you access them. The file system remains mounted as long as you remain in the file system and are using a file. If the file system is not accessed for a certain period of time, it is automatically unmounted.

AutoFS provides the following features:

• NFS file systems don't need to be mounted when the system boots, which saves booting time.

• Users don't need to know the root password to mount and unmount NFS file systems.

• Network traffic may be reduced, since NFS file systems are only mounted when they are in use.

The AutoFS service is initialized by automount, which is run automatically when a system is booted. The automount daemon, automountd, runs continuously and is responsible for the mounting and unmounting of the NFS file systems on an as-needed basis. By default, the Solaris operating environment automounts /home.

AutoFS works with file systems specified in the name service. This information can be maintained in NIS, NIS+, or local /etc files. With AutoFS, you can specify several multiple servers to provide the same file system. This way, if one of the servers is down, AutoFS can try to mount from another machine. You can specify which servers are preferred for each resource in the maps by assigning each server a weighting factor.

See the NFS Administration Guide for complete information on how to set up and administer AutoFS.