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AutoFS

Use autofs to automatically mount/unmount NFS shares. See the note in my notes repository named nfs for background information.

Here is an overview of the setup process:

  • Unmount any shares
  • Delete any mountpoints READ THE WARNING BELOW
  • Install AutoFS
  • Configure AutoFS
  • Restart AutoFS

Unmount Shares on Client

Before you delete any mountpoints, on your client computer you must first unmount the any mounted NFS shares.

$ sudo unmount /mnt/server-nfs-shares/documents
$ sudo unmount /mnt/server-nfs-shares/music

Now that you have unmounted the NFS shared directory, you can delete the mountpoint.

Delete Mountpoints on Client

WARNING running the rm -r command on a mounted NFS share will delete the contents (if you have read/write) access!

You can now delete the mountpoints on the client that AutoFS will be automatically mounting and unmounting.

$ cd /mnt/server-nfs-shares
$ sudo rm -r documents
$ sudo rm -r music

Install autofs on Client

AutoFS is part of the Ubuntu package repository. Here's how you can install AutoFS on your client computer.

$ sudo apt install autofs

You can verify that AutoFS is running on the client by typing this command:

$ systemctl status autofs

Configure autofs on Client

There are two files you will need to edit on your client computer to configure autofs:

  • /etc/auto.master - this is the configuration file for autofs
  • /etc/auto.nfs - this map file will contain our list of (Note: you can name this whatever you want)
    • mount points on our client
    • server NFS shares that we want autofs to mount on our client

Edit /etc/auto.master

Let's edit /etc/auto.master first.

Add a line to the very end of the existing auto.master file that references your base mountpoint and the auto.nfs file.

$ sudo vim /etc/auto.master

Navigate to the end of the auto.master file and add:

/mnt/server-nfs-shares /etc/auto.nfs --ghost --timeout=60
  • Substitute the path to your base mountpoint for /mnt/server-nfs-shares
  • /etc/auto.nfs is just a pointer to this file which contains the info for the NFS shares that AutoFS will manage
  • --ghost adds subdirectories
  • --timeout=60 unmounts any shares that you haven't accessed in the last XX seconds - 60 seconds in this case

Save and close the /etc/auto.master file.

Create & Edit auto.nfs

Next, create and edit the map file /etc/auto.nfs on your client computer:

$ sudo vim /etc/auto.nfs

In this example I will use the two example NFS server shares from the note in this repository titled, nfs.md. Please refer to that separate note for background information.

Add the server's NFS share information to the auto.nfs file:

WARNING: Do NOT insert any tabs or extra spacing to make this look pretty

documents -fstype=nfs4,rw 192.168.1.1:/nfs-shares/documents
music -fstype=nfs4,rw 192.168.1.1:/nfs-shares/music

This follows the mount-point options location format where:

  • a documents is the mount point that will be created in the client directory we specified when we edited auto.master above
    • in this case, a ghost directory documents will be created on our client computer at /mnt/server-nfs-shares/documents
    • note: this documents does not need to be the same as the server's documents, you can name it anything
  • -fstype=nfs4 is the mount options - this is the NFS protocol version number
  • rw mount the NFS share as read/write - alternative is ro or read-only'
  • 192.168.1.1:/nfs-shares/documents is the source ip address of the NFS server & path that will be mounted on the client
    • substitute your server's ip address here
    • don't forget the : in between the NFS server's ip address and the path to the target mount

Save and close the /etc/nfs.md file.

Restart autofs

$ sudo systemctl restart autofs

Navigate to your newly-mounted shares to verify they are there.

$ cd /mnt/server-nfs-shares/documents
$ ls

Verify that your server's NFS shares are listed.