NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NFS
Configuring and Administering an NFS Client
Chapter 2 37
• With AutoFS the configured mount points are the actual mount
points. (The pre-existing Automounter mounts directories under
/tmp_mnt and creates symbolic links from the configured mount
points to the actual ones under /tmp_mnt.)
• You do not have to stop AutoFS to change your automounter maps.
The AutoFS daemon, automountd, runs continuously. When you
make a change to an automounter map, you run the automount
command, which reads the maps and then exits. (The pre-existing
automounter has to be killed and restarted whenever you make a
change to an automounter map.)
For information on migrating to AutoFS, see “Migrating From
Automounter to AutoFS” on page 96.
Deciding Between Standard-Mounted Directories and
Automounted Directories
Before you mount any remote directories on your local system, decide
whether you want each directory to be standard-mounted or
automounted; you can automount directories using either AutoFS or
Automounter. Table 2-1 lists the advantages and disadvantages of each
type of mount.
Standard-mounted directories stay mounted until you explicitly
unmount them. Automounted directories stay mounted until they are
left idle for five minutes. You can change this default as follows:
• If you are using AutoFS, you can change the five minute default by
adding the -t duration option to the AUTOMOUNT_OPTIONS
variable in the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file.
For instructions on using AutoFS, see “Configuring and
Administering AutoFS” on page 94.
• If you are using the Automounter, you can change the five minute
default by adding the -tl duration option to the AUTO_OPTIONS
variable in the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file.
For instructions on using the Automounter, see “Configuring and
Administering the NFS Automounter” on page 62.