how to automount on RedHat

[Nigel Wade]

Dave Martini wrote:
> I'm trying to get automounts to work on my RHEL 4 machine. When I start 
> the autofs service I get these errors. How do I get it so it automounts 
> my directories from my NIS domain? I don't want to have to put each 
> mount in the /etc/fstab file if possible. I would like autofs to handle it.
> 
> host1# service autofs reload
> automount not running
> 
> host1# service autofs start
> Starting automount: do_ypcall: clnt_call: RPC: Procedure unavailable
> do_ypcall: clnt_call: RPC: Procedure unavailable

That indicates that portmap either isn't running on the NIS server, or iptables 
is blocking access to it. Portmap controls access to RPC based services, and 
both NIS and NFS require access to it. Check that portmap is enabled on both the 
NIS and NFS servers by running:

# chkconfig --list portmap

Portmap should normally be on for run levels 3,4 and 5.

If it's not enabled, enable it either with chkconfig or ntsysv. Then start it with:

# service portmap start

Once you have portmap enabled on both servers you need to check client access. 
You do this from the NFS client by running:

# rpcinfo -p <RPC server>

substitute <RPC server> with the hostname (or IP) of the NIS and NFS servers. If 
you don't get a response it usually means that iptables is getting in the way. 
If you get a response from rpcinfo but still can't start the service that might 
be because iptables is open for portmap (port 111) but not for the service which 
is required. RPC services generally have dynamic ports, hence the use of portmap.

All the other symptoms may well be caused by the lack of RPC.

-- 
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
             University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail :    nmw at ion.le.ac.uk
Phone :     +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555