HP-UX 11i Version 2 Release Notes (October 2003)

Disk and File Management
AutoFS
Chapter 5
110
AutoFS
AutoFS is part of the ONC product known as NFS Services/800 or B1031A. AutoFS
mounts directories automatically when users or processes request access to them, and it
unmounts them automatically after they have been idle for a period of time.
Summary of Change
AutoFS has been upgraded to include the features of the SUN ONC AutoFS version 2.3
product in addition to other customer requests. These upgrades include:
• Only the file systems that are being accessed are automatically mounted, rather
than all file systems hierarchically related to such file systems. This on-demand
mounting is a performance enhancement.
• All directories that could be mounted for an indirect map are shown, rather than just
the directories that are mounted. This browsability is a convenience for the
customer.
• The device id of a mounted file system in the /etc/mnttab file can be used for
reference during a future unmount. This is a performance enhancement as the
unmount will not have to get the information from the remote file system.
• Concurrent mounts and unmounts are allowed to take place in a multi threaded
automount daemon. This is a performance enhancement.
•The ping time-out value for remote servers can be configured based on the network
setup. This is a performance enhancement as operations can better distinguish
servers that are down versus those that are slow in responding.
• Loopback NFS mounts can be used instead of LOFS mounts when mounting a local
file system. This provides a better functioning, highly available NFS environment.
• The CIFS client is supported.
Impact
This new version of AutoFS 2.3 is a better performing and less troublesome product than
its predecessor (AutoFS1.2). Previous timing-related issues have been resolved by a
better overall design.
Compatibility
There are no compatibility issues.
Performance
The performance of the new version of AutoFS has been significantly improved by its
better design.