How To Automount NFS Share in Linux Using Autofs

In this tutorial, we will show you how to Automount NFS share in Linux using Autofs.

Network File System (NFS) is a robust way to share directories across systems, enabling seamless access to files. However, manually mounting NFS shares can be tedious, especially when managing multiple systems. This is where autofs, a dynamic automounting tool, shines. Autofs automatically mounts NFS shares when accessed and unmounts them when idle, saving system resources.

Prerequisites

• A working NFS server with shared directories.
• A Linux client machine (tested on Debian 12, RHEL 9).
• Sudo or root access on the client machine.

Autofs service reads two files Master map file ( /etc/auto.master ) and a map file like /etc/auto.misc or /etc/auto.xxxx.

In ‘/etc/auto.master’ file we have three different fields :

/<Mount-Point>     <Map-file>     <Timeout-Value>

In map file (/etc/auto.misc or /etc/auto.xxxx) also we have three different fields:

<Mount-Point>    <Mount-Options>        <Location_of_File System>

In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to mount an NFS share using autofs. The NFS share /var/nfs_share is exported from an Ubuntu 24.04 NFS server with the IP address 192.168.1.11. We will mount this NFS share on both RHEL 9 and Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04 Linux systems using autofs.

 Mount nfs share using Autofs in RHEL 9

1) Install autofs package

Install the autofs package using below yum command if it is not installed.

$ sudo rpm -q autofs
package autofs is not installed
$ sudo dnf install autofs

2) Edit the Master map file (/etc/auto.master )

Add the following line .

$ sudo vi /etc/auto.master
/dbstuff  /etc/auto.nfsdb  --timeout=180

Note : Mount point ‘/dbstuff’‘ must exist on your system. If not then create a directory ‘mkdir /dbstuff‘. NFS Share will automatically umount after 180 seconds or 3 minutes if don’t perform any action on the share.

3) Create a map file ‘/etc/auto.nfsdb’

Create a map file and add the following line.

$ sudo vi /etc/auto.nfsdb
db_backup -fstype=nfs,rw,soft,intr 192.168.1.11:/var/nfs_share

Save and exit the file.

Where :

• db_backup is a mount point.
• -fstype=nfs is the file system type & ‘rw,soft,intr’ are mount options.
• ‘192.168.1.11:/var/nfs_share’ is nfs share location.

4) Start the auotfs service

$ sudo systemctl restart autofs.service
$ sudo systemctl enable autofs.service

5) Try to access the mount point

Mount point of nfs share will be ‘/dbstuff/db_backup‘. When we try access the mount point then autofs service will mount nfs share automatically as shown below:

Mount NFS share using autofs in Debian 12 / Ubuntu 24.04

1) Install the autofs package using apt command

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install autofs -y

2) Edit the Master Map file ‘/etc/auto.master’

Add the following line in the master map file.

$ sudo vi /etc/auto.master
/dbstuff   /etc/auto.nfsdb   --timeout=180

Save & exit the file.

Create the mount point.

$ sudo mkdir /dbstuff

3) Create a map file ‘/etc/auto.nfsdb’

Add the following line in the map file.

$ sudo vi /etc/auto.nfsdb
db_backup   -fstype=nfs4,rw,soft,intr   192.168.1.11:/var/nfs_share

4) Start the autofs service

$ sudo systemctl restart autofs && sudo systemctl enable autofs

5) Try to access the mount point

Perfect, above confirms that NFS share has been mount automatically via autofs.

That’s all from tutorial, I hope you have found it useful and informative, feel free to post your queries and feedback in below comments section.