Network-attached storage commonly used to store backup and other shared files over TCP/IP network. For example:

i) Corporate e-mail system with multiple, load-balanced webmail servers
ii) Load-balanced web servers access the same contents from NAS storage
iii) Backup files or dumps to NAS storage from all other servers using FTP/NFS/CIFS.

Autofs is a automounter for Linux. It allows:

a) Mount your directory on demand i.e. when you type command cd /backup it will mount NAS server share.
b) Useful to transparently mount your backup directory as you need it
c) Mail or web server can use to store mails/files
d) Compare files on the different servers (snapshots)
e) Give user a common home directory server for all users to login and be authenticated and able to work from and workstation using any server in the network.
f) Reliability – Increase the reliability of your LAN by removing the dependecies on a single server etc

Assuming that:

• NAS Server IP: 202.54.20.111 / nasbackup02.nixcraft.com (FQDN)
• NAS CIFS username: nixcraft
• NAS CIFS password: mySecret
• NAS CIFS sharename: ://202.54.20.111/sharename or ://202.54.20.111/username

Make sure you have autofs installed. Now you will need to configure your filesystem to mount automatically. Edit file /etc/auto.master using vi text editor:

# mkdir /backup
# vi /etc/auto.master

Append following line:

/backup /etc/auto.backup

Save the file and open /etc/auto.backup file:

# vi /etc/auto.backup

Append following line /etc/auto.backup:

smb -fstype=smbfs,username=nixcraft,password=mySecret ://202.54.20.111/sharename

Save the file. Restart autofs:

# /etc/init.d/autofs restart

Make sure that autofs is starting on boot (after reboot). If you are using RedHat/Fedora Linux:

# chkconfig autofs on

If you are using other Linux distribution use old good soft link method:

# ln -s /etc/init.d/autofs /etc/rc2.d/S80autofs
# ln -s /etc/init.d/autofs /etc/rc2.d/K80autofs