NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.03) August 2008

3 Configuring and Administering AutoFS
This chapter provides an overview of AutoFS and the AutoFS environment. It also
describes how to configure and administer AutoFS on a system running HP-UX 11i
v3.
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Overview” (page 67)
• “Features ” (page 71)
• “Supported Filesystems” (page 74)
• “Supported Backends (Map Locations)” (page 75)
• “AutoFS Configuration Prerequisites” (page 77)
• “Updating from Automounter to AutoFS” (page 77)
• “AutoFS Configuration Changes” (page 79)
• “Enabling AutoFS” (page 81)
• “Notes on AutoFS Master Map” (page 82)
• “Deciding Between Direct and Indirect Automounts” (page 83)
• “Using Environment Variables as Shortcuts in AutoFS Maps” (page 89)
• “Using Wildcard Characters as Shortcuts in AutoFS Maps” (page 90)
• “Automounting Home Directories” (page 92)
• “Special Maps” (page 93)
• “Advanced AutoFS Administration” (page 97)
• “Modifying or Removing an Automounted Directory from a Map” (page 101)
• “Verifying the AutoFS Configuration” (page 101)
• “Disabling AutoFS” (page 102)
• “Restarting AutoFS” (page 103)
• “Troubleshooting AutoFS” (page 104)
Overview
AutoFS is a client-side service that automatically mounts remote filesystems. During
system startup, AutoFS is initialized by the automount command. The automount
daemon, automountd, runs continuously and mounts and unmounts remote directories
as required.
When a client running automountd attempts to access a remote file or a remote
directory, automountd mounts it, if it has been configured. If the mounted remote
filesystem is not accessed for a certain period of time, it is automatically unmounted.
AutoFS uses maps to navigate the network. Maps define the mount-points that AutoFS
will mount. AutoFS can mount both directories and files. For more information on
AutoFS maps, see “Maps Overview” (page 69).
Overview 67