Linux: difference between using autofs with NFS and just using fstab
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What is the difference between using auto.master and having autofs automount your NFS mountpoints versus just putting the info in fstab? Linux Red-Hat 5/6
nfs fstab autofs
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
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up vote
8
down vote
favorite
What is the difference between using auto.master and having autofs automount your NFS mountpoints versus just putting the info in fstab? Linux Red-Hat 5/6
nfs fstab autofs
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
add a comment |Â
up vote
8
down vote
favorite
up vote
8
down vote
favorite
What is the difference between using auto.master and having autofs automount your NFS mountpoints versus just putting the info in fstab? Linux Red-Hat 5/6
nfs fstab autofs
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
What is the difference between using auto.master and having autofs automount your NFS mountpoints versus just putting the info in fstab? Linux Red-Hat 5/6
nfs fstab autofs
nfs fstab autofs
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
asked Dec 21 '13 at 15:36
Gregg Leventhal
2,889114174
2,889114174
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
up vote
6
down vote
accepted
With fstab, the advantage is the remote filesystem will be mounted on system (when the noauto mount option is not used).
Additionally, it depends how the mount point is defined. There are two options which determines the recovery behaviour when the NFS client can't reach the server. With the hard option (default one), the boot process will pause if there is a problem mounting the nfs share and repeated tries are made to mount the share indefinitely. If the soft option is used, then the mount fails after retrans retransmissions have been sent.
On the other hand, autofs only mounts nfs shares when they are needed and accessed.
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
The benefit of autofs would be you can boot your server (and use it) as normal when an NFS mount is inaccessible. Only the user/application that wants to access the NFS mount will notice the unavailability. With fstab your server might refuse to boot (hard option), boot very slowly (hard option with timeout), or you might have to manually re-mount the unavailable NFS mount each time it failed (soft option). Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Generally as we know mounting at boot happens with/etc/fstab whereas autofs is the daemon that happens later. so generally it's good to have NFS shares on autofs so that there will not be any problem during boot process if NFS shares failed to load (happens sometimes). Advantage of autofs is due to autofs boot time is reduced because of unnecessary Mount point are reduced. Automatically unmount is also done as per the period. Network efficiency is increased.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
6
down vote
accepted
With fstab, the advantage is the remote filesystem will be mounted on system (when the noauto mount option is not used).
Additionally, it depends how the mount point is defined. There are two options which determines the recovery behaviour when the NFS client can't reach the server. With the hard option (default one), the boot process will pause if there is a problem mounting the nfs share and repeated tries are made to mount the share indefinitely. If the soft option is used, then the mount fails after retrans retransmissions have been sent.
On the other hand, autofs only mounts nfs shares when they are needed and accessed.
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
add a comment |Â
up vote
6
down vote
accepted
With fstab, the advantage is the remote filesystem will be mounted on system (when the noauto mount option is not used).
Additionally, it depends how the mount point is defined. There are two options which determines the recovery behaviour when the NFS client can't reach the server. With the hard option (default one), the boot process will pause if there is a problem mounting the nfs share and repeated tries are made to mount the share indefinitely. If the soft option is used, then the mount fails after retrans retransmissions have been sent.
On the other hand, autofs only mounts nfs shares when they are needed and accessed.
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
add a comment |Â
up vote
6
down vote
accepted
up vote
6
down vote
accepted
With fstab, the advantage is the remote filesystem will be mounted on system (when the noauto mount option is not used).
Additionally, it depends how the mount point is defined. There are two options which determines the recovery behaviour when the NFS client can't reach the server. With the hard option (default one), the boot process will pause if there is a problem mounting the nfs share and repeated tries are made to mount the share indefinitely. If the soft option is used, then the mount fails after retrans retransmissions have been sent.
On the other hand, autofs only mounts nfs shares when they are needed and accessed.
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
With fstab, the advantage is the remote filesystem will be mounted on system (when the noauto mount option is not used).
Additionally, it depends how the mount point is defined. There are two options which determines the recovery behaviour when the NFS client can't reach the server. With the hard option (default one), the boot process will pause if there is a problem mounting the nfs share and repeated tries are made to mount the share indefinitely. If the soft option is used, then the mount fails after retrans retransmissions have been sent.
On the other hand, autofs only mounts nfs shares when they are needed and accessed.
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
answered Dec 21 '13 at 16:03
dsmsk80
2,175814
2,175814
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
add a comment |Â
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
That was my understanding of autofs as well; so autofs will react to a stat, or other filesystem request which references that mountpoint by first mounting the NFS volume and then completing the request? Does it immediately unmount the NFS after the operation completes?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 21 '13 at 18:12
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
@GreggLeventhal autofs can be configured to unmount after a period of inactivity. Setting the timeout to 0 would not be a good idea since it would lead to very frequent unmount-mount cycles when you access two files in succession.
– Gilles
Dec 21 '13 at 23:51
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
What is the benefit to that versus leaving it mounted via fstab?
– Gregg Leventhal
Dec 22 '13 at 15:06
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
The benefit of autofs would be you can boot your server (and use it) as normal when an NFS mount is inaccessible. Only the user/application that wants to access the NFS mount will notice the unavailability. With fstab your server might refuse to boot (hard option), boot very slowly (hard option with timeout), or you might have to manually re-mount the unavailable NFS mount each time it failed (soft option). Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
The benefit of autofs would be you can boot your server (and use it) as normal when an NFS mount is inaccessible. Only the user/application that wants to access the NFS mount will notice the unavailability. With fstab your server might refuse to boot (hard option), boot very slowly (hard option with timeout), or you might have to manually re-mount the unavailable NFS mount each time it failed (soft option). Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
up vote
5
down vote
The benefit of autofs would be you can boot your server (and use it) as normal when an NFS mount is inaccessible. Only the user/application that wants to access the NFS mount will notice the unavailability. With fstab your server might refuse to boot (hard option), boot very slowly (hard option with timeout), or you might have to manually re-mount the unavailable NFS mount each time it failed (soft option). Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
The benefit of autofs would be you can boot your server (and use it) as normal when an NFS mount is inaccessible. Only the user/application that wants to access the NFS mount will notice the unavailability. With fstab your server might refuse to boot (hard option), boot very slowly (hard option with timeout), or you might have to manually re-mount the unavailable NFS mount each time it failed (soft option). Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
edited Oct 8 '17 at 8:30
Styne666
1637
1637
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
answered Mar 30 '15 at 13:10
Ph. Bourdin
5111
5111
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
add a comment |Â
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
I found this article which adds at least one point to this answer: golinuxhub.com/2014/09/…
– MrMas
Feb 2 '16 at 16:30
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Generally as we know mounting at boot happens with/etc/fstab whereas autofs is the daemon that happens later. so generally it's good to have NFS shares on autofs so that there will not be any problem during boot process if NFS shares failed to load (happens sometimes). Advantage of autofs is due to autofs boot time is reduced because of unnecessary Mount point are reduced. Automatically unmount is also done as per the period. Network efficiency is increased.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Generally as we know mounting at boot happens with/etc/fstab whereas autofs is the daemon that happens later. so generally it's good to have NFS shares on autofs so that there will not be any problem during boot process if NFS shares failed to load (happens sometimes). Advantage of autofs is due to autofs boot time is reduced because of unnecessary Mount point are reduced. Automatically unmount is also done as per the period. Network efficiency is increased.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Generally as we know mounting at boot happens with/etc/fstab whereas autofs is the daemon that happens later. so generally it's good to have NFS shares on autofs so that there will not be any problem during boot process if NFS shares failed to load (happens sometimes). Advantage of autofs is due to autofs boot time is reduced because of unnecessary Mount point are reduced. Automatically unmount is also done as per the period. Network efficiency is increased.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Generally as we know mounting at boot happens with/etc/fstab whereas autofs is the daemon that happens later. so generally it's good to have NFS shares on autofs so that there will not be any problem during boot process if NFS shares failed to load (happens sometimes). Advantage of autofs is due to autofs boot time is reduced because of unnecessary Mount point are reduced. Automatically unmount is also done as per the period. Network efficiency is increased.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
answered 5 mins ago
Akhil
1
1
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Akhil is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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