NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.04) March 2009

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 corresponding master server.
If you are using LDAP, the map must be modified on the LDAP server. For
information on modifying the map, see the LDAP-UX Client Services B.04.00
Administrator’s Guide (J4269-90064).
If the indirect map you modified is not listed in the master map, add the following
entry to the master map:
local_parent_directory indirect_map_name [mount_options]
2. If you are using local files for your AutoFS maps, use an editor to open or create
an indirect map in the /etc directory. Add a line with the following syntax, to
the indirect map:
local_subdirectory [mount_options] server:remote_directory
If you are using NIS or LDAP to manage maps, add an entry to an indirect map
on the corresponding NIS master server or the LDAP directory.
3. If you are using NIS to manage maps, rebuild the maps and push them to the slave
servers. For more information on NIS maps, see the NIS Administrator’s Guide
(5991-2187).
4. If you modified the master map, enter the following command on each host that
uses the map, to force AutoFS to read the modified master map:
/usr/sbin/automount
IMPORTANT: Ensure that local_parent_directory and local_subdirectory
are not already created. AutoFS creates them when it mounts the remote directory. If
these directories exist, their files and directories in them are hidden when the remote
directory is mounted.
Ensure that the local mount-point specified in the AutoFS map entry is different from
the exported directory on the NFS server. If it is the same, and the NFS server also acts
as an NFS client and uses AutoFS with these map entries, the exported directory might
attempt to mount over itself. This can result in unexpected behavior. A directory might
also attempt to mount over itself if you use a single set of AutoFS maps that are
distributed using NIS or LDAP, or are in a High Availability environment.
Notes on Indirect Maps
The mount options that you can specify in the AutoFS maps are the same ones that
you use for the type of filesystem you attempt to automount. For example, if the
filesystem type is NFS, then the mount options you use are identical to the ones used
for standard NFS mounted directories. For a list of mount options, see “Changing the
Default Mount Options” (page 53). You cannot use the bg option for an automounted
Configuring AutoFS Direct and Indirect Mounts 85