SUMMARY: Several Automounter problems on SUN OS and Solaris

From: V.Sander (zdv123@zam092.zam.kfa-juelich.de)
Date: Wed Apr 12 1995 - 04:43:56 CDT


Hi SUN-Managers,
first let me thank to all who have responded.
My original posting was:

----- Begin Included Message -----

Hi SUN Gurus,

I have several problems with the SUN automounter (SUN OS and Solaris).
First let me say, that my automount structure is quite large with
direct and inderect maps and a lot of NIS+ clients using them.
The important thing is, that I NEED to have multiple mounts, i.e.

auto_master:
          /nfs ...indirect map options

indirect map:
          hostname \
                  home/group1 ...... server:/home/group1
                              ......
                  home/groupn ...... server:/home/groupn

This configuration results in two problems:

      1.) There is an update problem. Think of adding home/groupn+1
          to the above indirect map. Then the automounter is told
          to reread the map (either by kill -1 or by automount command).
          BUT, if there is a process using one of the above dirs/files
          (i.e. the shell) the automounter is not able to add the new
          information. I should tell you that I distribute several
          Home-Directories via the automounter in a NIS+ cluster.
          

      2.) Thing of a slow server. As mentioned in the SUN documentation
          the above n mounts are performed in one step when one of the
          directories are referenced first. But the server is not able to
          response to all of those mount-request in a resonable time.
          That means that there might be several directories, which will
          (see point 1.) never be mounted until the automounter is able
          to umount and remount the directories.

I tried to establish n independant entries. But due to my indirect map
/nfs/hostname must exist before one directory might be referenced. But
/nfs is under controll of the automounter (look at auto_master) and
is updated frequently. Should I run mkdir /nfs/hostname whenever a new
entry is established? This have to be done on each Client too!!

Any idea about the best way to solve my problem?

Let me concluse with another problem, the missing umount -f. Thing of
a server, whoch has changed several attributes. Some shells have open
files on the automounter-controlled directories. You will get error
messages. Now there is the question how to remount the directories.
Shutting down the automounter and umount does not help, the directory
is busy. Using lsof -N sometimes help but what to do if it is not able
to tell you the process ids of the shells. And now??
On SUN OS I had the problem that I restarted the automounter but he
does not return the stat() call on /nfs (LOOKS LIKE A SEMAPHORE PROBLEM).
The only way to reactivate the automounter was to reboot the system!

Any suggestions would be great!!!

many thanks,

----- End Included Message -----

There seem to be no solution except of using the BSD 4.4 amd
automounter, which is much more flexible than the one
designed by Sun.

Its available from a number of sites including:
    usc.edu:/pub/amd/amd920824.tar.Z via ftp

Bye, Volker



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