Updating from Automounter to AutoFS

Automounter is a service that automatically mounts fileystems on reference. The service enables you to access the filesystems without taking on the superuser role and use the mount command. All filesystems appear to be immediately and continuously available.

Starting with HP-UX 11i v2, Automounter is no longer supported. HP recommends that you update to AutoFS. Updating to AutoFS offers the following advantages:

AutoFS can be used to mount any type of fileystem.
Automounter mounted the directories mounted under /tmp_mnt and created symbolic links from the configured mount-points to the actual ones on /tmp_mnt. In AutoFS, the configured mount-points are the actual mount-points.
Automounter had to be killed and restarted when you wanted to modify maps. In AutoFS, you need not stop AutoFS when you modify the maps. Run the automount command after modifying the map for the change to take effect.




	NOTE: Updating from Automounter to AutoFS does not require any user intervention.

The following steps are performed automatically to update all users from the Automounter configuration to AutoFS:

In the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file, the AUTOFS variable is set to 1.

Any options you had specified in the AUTO_OPTIONS variable are copied to either the AUTO_OPTIONS or the AUTOMOUNTD_OPTIONS variable. Obsolete options are removed.

Table 3-2 lists the options of the old automount command and the equivalent AutoFS command options. It also indicates which automount options are not supported in AutoFS.

Table 3-2 Old Automount Command-Line Options Used By AutoFS

Old automount Option	Equivalent AutoFS command option	Purpose
-D`variable = value`	automountd -D`variable = value`	To assign `value` to the environment `variable.`
-f`master_file`	automount -f`master_file`	To use `master_file` as local master map.
-M`mount_directory`	Obsolete with AutoFS.	To automount directories under `mount_directory` instead of `/tmp_mnt`.
-m	Obsolete with AutoFS.	To ignore NIS auto.master map.
-n	Obsolete with AutoFS.	To allow automounts only of previously mounted target filesystems.
-T	automountd -T	To enable automount tracing.
-tl`duration`	automount -t`duration`	To specify time before unmounting idle directories.
-tm`interval`	Obsolete with AutoFS.	To specify interval between mount attempts.
-tw`interval`	Obsolete with AutoFS.	To specify interval between unmount attempts.
-v	automount -vautomountd -v	To specify the Verbose mode.

Scripts that kill and restart automount are modified.

Updating from Automounter to AutoFS

Technical documentation

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