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

An indirect map uses the key to establish a connection between a mount-point on the
client and a directory on the server. Indirect maps are useful for accessing specific file
systems, such as home directories. The automounts configured in an indirect map are
mounted under the same local parent directory.
Figure 3-4 shows the difference between direct mounts and indirect mounts on an NFS
client.
Figure 3-4 Difference Between Direct Mounts and Indirect Mounts
In the Mounts in a Direct Map figure, mounts are configured in various places in the
local filesystem and not located under the same parent directory. In the Mounts in an
Indirect Map figure, all the mounts are configured under the same parent directory.
CAUTION: Any filesystems that are being managed by AutoFS should never be
manually mounted or unmounted. Even if the mount or unmount operation appears
to complete successfully, the resulting change of state to the AutoFS managed filesystem
can lead to disruptive or unpredictable results, including but not limited to: commands
hanging or not returning expected results, and applications failing due to their
dependencies on those mounted filesystems. A reboot may be necessary to resolve
these issues.
Automounting a Remote Directory Using a Direct Map
This section describes how to automount a remote directory using a direct map.
To mount a remote directory using a direct map, follow these steps:
1. If you are using local files for maps, use an editor to edit the master map in the
/etc directory. The master map is commonly called /etc/auto_master. If you
are using NIS, open the master map on the NIS master server.
If you are using LDAP, the map must be modified on the LDAP server. For
information on modifying maps, see the LDAP-UX Client Services B.04.00
Administrator’s Guide (J4269-90064).
If the direct map you just modified is not listed in the master map, add the following
entry to the master map:
84 Configuring and Administering AutoFS