mounting nfs through nfs

[wbens]

Hello Forum:

I have a few servers that I am responsible of. I really have to have an nfs server running on one of them to share its directory to the other servers on the network. I have it mounting through the /etc/fstab file. However, I am afraid of that mounting because if one day the nfs server stops working, well, that is server doomsday for me.

Therefore, I have been working on getting the nfs share to mount by using the autofs. I have read, researched, searched, googled, you name it. The only thing I have not done is ask, and that is what I am doing now. It is not working for me.

Let me show you what I have done so far. All of this is happening on one of the clients where I want to have my nfs share mounted.

This is my auto.master (/etc/auto.master)

[root@nfsclient etc]# cat auto.master
#
# $Id: auto.master,v 1.4 2005/01/04 14:36:54 raven Exp $
#
# Sample auto.master file
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# For details of the format look at autofs(5).
#
/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout 60
[root@nfsclient etc]# cat auto.master
#
# $Id: auto.master,v 1.4 2005/01/04 14:36:54 raven Exp $
#
# Sample auto.master file
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# For details of the format look at autofs(5).
#
/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout 60
/mnt /etc/auto.mnt --timeout 60

#
# NOTE: mounts done from a hosts map will be mounted with the
# "nosuid" and "nodev" options unless the "suid" and "dev"
# options are explicitly given.
#
/net -hosts
#
# Include central master map if it can be found using
# nsswitch sources.
#
# Note that if there are entries for /net or /misc (as
# above) in the included master map any keys that are the
# same will not be seen as the first read key seen takes
# precedence.
#
#/mnt /etc/auto.mnt
+auto.master
[root@nfsclient etc]#

This is my auto.mnt file:

[root@nfsclient etc]# cat auto.mnt

raid_array -rw,soft,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 192.168.1.101:/mnt/raid_array

[root@nfsclient etc]#

On the server side, this is my export file:

[root@nfsserver ~]# cat /etc/exports

/mnt/raid_array 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,secure,no_r oot_squash)

I am exporting the whole network. When I run the

showmount -e nfsserver

command, this is what I get:


[root@nfsclient etc]# showmount -e nfsserver

Export list for nfsserver:
/mnt/raid_array 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0

[root@nfsclient etc]#

However, nothing gets mounted. I am trying to mount the /mnt/raid_array directory on my nfsclient. I have not subdirectory under the /mnt directory on the client side.

I know this is a lot of writing, but I want to get my point across.
Is it possible for someone to help me on this one?

[meton_magis]

I'm not sure why you are afraid of using NFS in your /etc/fstab, or why you think it's doomsday. Just set it up as a soft mount, and you should be good (make the line be something like

192.168.1.0:/var/nfs /mnt/raid_array nfs rw,soft 0 0
)

IMO, the advantage of autofs is not enough to combat the troubles it causes (I haven't mentioned them, but autofs is a pain from what I remember)