Automounting Home Directories

To automount users’ home directories, follow these steps:

Ensure that the systems where users’ home directories are located are set up as NFS servers and are exporting the home directories. For more information, see “Configuring and Administering an NFS Server”.
In the /etc/passwd file on the NFS clients, configure the home directory of each user as the NFS mount point where the user’s home directory is mounted. For example, if home directories are mounted under /home, Claire’s home directory would be configured as /home/claire in the /etc/passwd file.
If you are using local files for maps, create a file called /etc/auto_home on the NFS clients, and add an entry for each user.
sammy thyme:/export/home/& -nosuid
The ampersand (&) character takes the value of the user name in each line. User Sammy’s home directory is physically located on host thyme in /export/home/sammy.
If you are using local files for maps, add the following entry to the AutoFS master map, /etc/auto_master, on the NFS clients:
/home /etc/auto_home
Enter the following command on each NFS client that uses these maps to force AutoFS to reread the maps:
/usr/sbin/automount

Example of Automounting a User’s Home Directory

User Howard’s home directory is located on NFS server basil, where it is called /export/home/howard. Howard has the following entry in the /etc/passwd file on all the systems in the network:

howard:*:700:70:Howard:/home/howard:/usr/bin/ksh

When Howard logs in to any NFS client, AutoFS recognizes /home as an AutoFS mount point because it is configured in the master map:

/home auto_home

AutoFS reads the auto_home map to find out how to mount Howard’s home directory. It finds the following line:

howard basil:/export/home/& -nosuid

AutoFS substitutes howard for the ampersand (&) character in that line:

howard basil:/export/home/howard -nosuid

AutoFS mounts /export/home/howard from server basil to the local mount point /home/howard on the NFS client. Figure 3-5 “Home Directories Automounted with Wildcards” illustrates this configuration.

Figure 3-5 Home Directories Automounted with Wildcards

Automounting Home Directories

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Example of Automounting a User’s Home Directory