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

Following are the contents of the indirect map, /etc/auto_indirect, which contains
the local mount-points on the client and the references to the directories on the server:
# /etc/auto_indirect file
# local mount-point mount options remote server:directory
/test -nosuid thyme:/export/project/test
/apps -nosuid basil:/export/apps
Enter the following commands to view the contents of the /nfs/desktop directory:
cd /nfs/desktop
ls
The ls command displays the following:
test apps
The test and apps subdirectories are the potential mount-points. However, they are
not currently mounted. To mount test and apps, enter the following commands:
cd /nfs/desktop/test
cd /nfs/desktop/apps
Concurrent Mount And Unmount
AutoFS performs concurrent mounts and unmounts, using the automountd daemon.
For every mount and unmount request sent to the automountd daemon, a thread is
created. This enables AutoFS to concurrently service multiple mounts and unmounts.
This also prevents the service from hanging if a server is unavailable.
NFS Loopback Mount
By default, AutoFS uses the Loopback Filesystem (LOFS) mount for locally mounted
filesystems. AutoFS provides an option to enable loopback NFS mounts for the local
mount. Use the automountd command with the -L option to enable the loopback NFS
mounts for locally mounted filesystems. This option is useful when AutoFS is running
on a node that is part of a High Availability NFS environment.
Client-side Failover Support
AutoFS enables a mounted NFS read-only filesystem to transparently switch over to
an alternate server if the current server goes down. AutoFS can make use of this feature
if the NFS client supports client-side failover. For more information on client-side
failover, see “Enabling Client-Side Failover” (page 52).
Secure NFS Support
AutoFS supports secure NFS filesystems if the NFS client supports mounting of secure
directories. For more information on Secure NFS, see “Secure Sharing of Directories ”
(page 35).
Features 73