autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

Hi,

I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The 
autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to upgrade 
the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3 became 
the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
/users (LDAP map)
/protein/users (LDAP map)
/import/users (LDAP map)
I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).

Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to server2. 
After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP 
entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in 
under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed 
that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount points". 
Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the previously 
mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.

I have been forced to move back to autofs-3.1.7-904 as this is a 
production server. Any help much appreciated.

Thanks,
Prakash

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The 
> autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to upgrade 
> the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3 became 
> the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
> OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> /users (LDAP map)
> /protein/users (LDAP map)
> /import/users (LDAP map)
> I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> 
> Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to server2. 
> After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP 
> entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
> above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in 
> under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed 
> that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
> removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount points". 
> Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the previously 
> mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.

I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
What is the actual problem and symptom?

Ian

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

>>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The 
> autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
upgrade 
> the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
became 
> the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
> OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> /users (LDAP map)
> /protein/users (LDAP map)
> /import/users (LDAP map)
> I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> 
> Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
server2. 
> After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP 
> entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
> above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in

> under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed 
> that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
> removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount points".

> Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the previously

> mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.

I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
What is the actual problem and symptom?

Ian

Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose home
dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
the system do in that case?

And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do I
have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because I
sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from LDAP
and tries to use that and fails.

Prakash

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The 
> > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> upgrade 
> > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
> became 
> > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
> > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > /users (LDAP map)
> > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > 
> > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> server2. 
> > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP 
> > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
> > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in
> 
> > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed 
> > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
> > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount points".
> 
> > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the previously
> 
> > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> 
> I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> What is the actual problem and symptom?
> 
> Ian
> 
> Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose home
> dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
> hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
> the system do in that case?

On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and leave 
the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the 
entry isn't mounted. 

"Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you 
have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing 
actually in use.

> 
> And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do I
> have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because I
> sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from LDAP
> and tries to use that and fails.

autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure that 
the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still 
valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you might 
need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions (most 
RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this change 
on access without needing to re-load the map.

The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the root 
owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has been 
(mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories. 
When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they will 
appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.

Ian

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

Ian Kent wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
>
>   
>>>>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
>>>>>           
>> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
>>> I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The 
>>> autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
>>>       
>> upgrade 
>>     
>>> the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
>>>       
>> became 
>>     
>>> the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
>>> OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
>>> /users (LDAP map)
>>> /protein/users (LDAP map)
>>> /import/users (LDAP map)
>>> I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
>>>
>>> Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
>>>       
>> server2. 
>>     
>>> After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP 
>>> entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
>>> above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in
>>>       
>>> under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed 
>>> that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
>>> removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount points".
>>>       
>>> Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the previously
>>>       
>>> mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
>>>       
>> I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
>> What is the actual problem and symptom?
>>
>> Ian
>>
>> Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose home
>> dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
>> hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
>> the system do in that case?
>>     
>
> On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
> re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and leave 
> the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the 
> entry isn't mounted. 
>
> "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you 
> have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing 
> actually in use.
>
>   
>> And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do I
>> have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because I
>> sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from LDAP
>> and tries to use that and fails.
>>     
>
> autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure that 
> the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still 
> valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you might 
> need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions (most 
> RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this change 
> on access without needing to re-load the map.
>
> The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the root 
> owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has been 
> (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories. 
> When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they will 
> appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
>
> Ian
Thanks Ian. I tried out autofs reload and there seems to be a small 
glitch. It says "checking for changes in auto.master" and then stops 
some of the automount daemons. But stays there forever. If I do Ctrl-C, 
then it immediately shows "Starting XXX" for the different automount 
daemons (except 1 for some reason). Is there a reason for this 
behaviour. The system I am trying out is SuSE Linux 10.0, autofs-4.1.4-6 
with automount master map and the entries coming from a OpenLDAP server.

Thanks,
Prakash

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> Ian Kent wrote:
> > On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > 
> >   
> > > > > > Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> > > > > >           
> > > On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > 
> > >     
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > > > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The
> > > > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> > > >       
> > > upgrade     
> > > > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
> > > >       
> > > became     
> > > > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a
> > > > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > > > /users (LDAP map)
> > > > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > > > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > > > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > > > 
> > > > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> > > >       
> > > server2.     
> > > > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP
> > > > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the
> > > > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in
> > > >       under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
> > > > noticed that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly
> > > > and removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
> > > > points".
> > > >       Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
> > > > previously
> > > >       mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> > > >       
> > > I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> > > What is the actual problem and symptom?
> > > 
> > > Ian
> > > 
> > > Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose home
> > > dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
> > > hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
> > > the system do in that case?
> > >     
> > 
> > On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels re-read
> > and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and leave the stale
> > map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the entry isn't
> > mounted. 
> > "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you have
> > mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing actually
> > in use.
> > 
> >   
> > > And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do I
> > > have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because I
> > > sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from LDAP
> > > and tries to use that and fails.
> > >     
> > 
> > autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure that the
> > automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still valid
> > following the change and if it also had to be changed then you might need to
> > "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions (most RedHat
> > versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this change on access
> > without needing to re-load the map.
> > 
> > The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the root
> > owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has been
> > (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories. When
> > autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they will appear
> > root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
> > 
> > Ian
> Thanks Ian. I tried out autofs reload and there seems to be a small glitch. It
> says "checking for changes in auto.master" and then stops some of the
> automount daemons. But stays there forever. If I do Ctrl-C, then it
> immediately shows "Starting XXX" for the different automount daemons (except 1
> for some reason). Is there a reason for this behaviour. The system I am trying
> out is SuSE Linux 10.0, autofs-4.1.4-6 with automount master map and the
> entries coming from a OpenLDAP server.

Sounds like a bug to me.

I'll try to duplcate it.
Can you offer any additional information on your setup?

Ian

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

Ian Kent wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
>
>   
>> Ian Kent wrote:
>>     
>>> On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>               
>>>> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
>>>>> I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The
>>>>> autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> upgrade     
>>>>         
>>>>> the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> became     
>>>>         
>>>>> the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a
>>>>> OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
>>>>> /users (LDAP map)
>>>>> /protein/users (LDAP map)
>>>>> /import/users (LDAP map)
>>>>> I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
>>>>>
>>>>> Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> server2.     
>>>>         
>>>>> After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his LDAP
>>>>> entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the
>>>>> above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged in
>>>>>       under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
>>>>> noticed that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly
>>>>> and removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
>>>>> points".
>>>>>       Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
>>>>> previously
>>>>>       mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
>>>> What is the actual problem and symptom?
>>>>
>>>> Ian
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose home
>>>> dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
>>>> hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
>>>> the system do in that case?
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels re-read
>>> and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and leave the stale
>>> map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the entry isn't
>>> mounted. 
>>> "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you have
>>> mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing actually
>>> in use.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do I
>>>> have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because I
>>>> sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from LDAP
>>>> and tries to use that and fails.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure that the
>>> automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still valid
>>> following the change and if it also had to be changed then you might need to
>>> "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions (most RedHat
>>> versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this change on access
>>> without needing to re-load the map.
>>>
>>> The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the root
>>> owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has been
>>> (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories. When
>>> autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they will appear
>>> root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
>>>
>>> Ian
>>>       
>> Thanks Ian. I tried out autofs reload and there seems to be a small glitch. It
>> says "checking for changes in auto.master" and then stops some of the
>> automount daemons. But stays there forever. If I do Ctrl-C, then it
>> immediately shows "Starting XXX" for the different automount daemons (except 1
>> for some reason). Is there a reason for this behaviour. The system I am trying
>> out is SuSE Linux 10.0, autofs-4.1.4-6 with automount master map and the
>> entries coming from a OpenLDAP server.
>>     
>
> Sounds like a bug to me.
>
> I'll try to duplcate it.
> Can you offer any additional information on your setup?
>
> Ian
Hi Ian,

Sorry for this long posting. Just giving all the info required. Let me 
know if you need anything else in particular.

Client details:
SuSE Linux 10.0 (the Open SuSE OS).
autofs-4.1.4-6

auto.master map comes from LDAP server (NIS attributes, not automount 
attributes) as well as from the file /etc/auto.master (nsswitch.conf has 
automount: files nis ldap)
DN is:
dn: nisMapName=auto.master,o=x,c=x
nisMapName: auto.master
objectClass: nisMap
objectClass: top

4 different map entries (3 through LDAP and 1 through file).
DNs are:
dn: nisMapName=auto.users,o=x,c=x
nisMapName: auto.users
objectClass: nisMap
objectClass: top
structuralObjectClass: nisMap

dn: cn=/,nisMapName=auto.users,o=x,c=x
cn: /
nisMapName: auto.users
objectClass: nisObject
structuralObjectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: -fstype=nfs,hard,intr x.x.x:/home/&

dn: cn=/users,nisMapName=auto.master,o=x,c=x
cn: /users
nisMapName: auto.master
objectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: ldap x.x.x:nisMapName=auto.users,o=x,c=x

dn: cn=/import/users,nisMapName=auto.master,o=x,c=x
cn: /import/users
nisMapName: auto.master
objectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: ldap x.x.x:nisMapName=auto.import,o=x,c=x
structuralObjectClass: nisObject

dn: nisMapName=auto.import,o=x,c=x
nisMapName: auto.import
objectClass: nisMap
objectClass: top
structuralObjectClass: nisMap

dn: cn=/,nisMapName=auto.import,o=x,c=x
cn: /
nisMapName: auto.import
objectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: -fstype=nfs,hard,intr x.x.x.x:/home/&
structuralObjectClass: nisObject

dn: nisMapName=auto.proteinusers,o=x,c=x
nisMapName: auto.proteinusers
objectClass: nisMap
objectClass: top
structuralObjectClass: nisMap

dn: cn=/,nisMapName=auto.proteinusers,o=x,c=x
cn: /
nisMapName: auto.proteinusers
objectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: -fstype=nfs,hard,intr x.x.x.x:/home/&
structuralObjectClass: nisObject

dn: cn=/protein/users,nisMapName=auto.master,o=x,c=x
cn: /protein/users
nisMapName: auto.master
objectClass: nisObject
nisMapEntry: ldap x.x.x:nisMapName=auto.proteinusers,o=x,c=x
structuralObjectClass: nisObject

The file based auto.master has
/export/users   auto_users      -rw,bg,hard,rsize=8192,wsize=8192
+

Contents of /etc/auto_users:
*       x.x.x.x:/pi_home/home/&/.linux

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Prakash

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> >
> > Sounds like a bug to me.
> >
> > I'll try to duplcate it.
> > Can you offer any additional information on your setup?
> >
> > Ian
> Hi Ian,
> 
> Sorry for this long posting. Just giving all the info required. Let me 
> know if you need anything else in particular.

That's OK.

I always have trouble finding/getting hold of the SuSE source rpm to test 
this stuff out. If you are able to forward one that would be great. 
Otherwise I'll test with my 4.1.4 and the minimum patches I recommend.
It's likey to show up the problem any way but I thought I'd mention it.

> 
> Client details:
> SuSE Linux 10.0 (the Open SuSE OS).
> autofs-4.1.4-6
>

This is exactly what I need to duplicate the problem.
My test setup is not greatly different anyway.
I'll setup and test soon as I get a chance.

Thanks
Ian

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

Hi,

What is the best practice when you want to move a user's home dir from
one server to another in an LDAP setting. Server1's /home/<user> is
mounted via NFS on the client's /server1/users mount point and server2's
/home/<user> is mounted via NFS on the client's /server2/users
mountpoint. The 2 are defined as separate map entries in the LDAP. How
do I go about migrating a user's home dir from server1 to server2 or
vice versa.

Thanks for the help,
Prakash

>>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/27/05 4:49 AM >>>
On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier. The

> > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> upgrade 
> > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
> became 
> > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from a 
> > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > /users (LDAP map)
> > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > 
> > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> server2. 
> > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his
LDAP 
> > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
> > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users logged
in
> 
> > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I noticed

> > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
> > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
points".
> 
> > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
previously
> 
> > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> 
> I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> What is the actual problem and symptom?
> 
> Ian
> 
> Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose
home
> dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
> hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What will
> the system do in that case?

On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and
leave 
the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the 
entry isn't mounted. 

"Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you 
have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing 
actually in use.

> 
> And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user, do
I
> have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen. Because
I
> sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from
LDAP
> and tries to use that and fails.

autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure that

the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still 
valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you
might 
need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions
(most 
RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this
change 
on access without needing to re-load the map.

The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the
root 
owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has
been 
(mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories. 
When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they
will 
appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.

Ian

_______________________________________________
autofs mailing list
autofs@linux.kernel.org
http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

But what happens in the following scenario.

In client C, users user1 and user2 are both logged in and their home
dirs are /server1/users/user1 and /server1/users/user2.

Now I want to move user1 to a different server server2. His home will be
changed to /server2/users/user1. I can unmount /server1/users/user1, but
cannot unmount /server1/users/user2. Now if user1 tries to login, would
autofs automatically mount /server2/users/user1 for him or keep
complaining about /server1/users/user1 not available (as the home dir
has already been moved to server2 and not available in server1 any
more)?

Thanks,
Prakash

>>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 6:44 PM >>>
uhh, you mean you migrated it to a different server?  Now you need to
update the ldap maps, and force autofs to rehash all the maps (though it
really does not do a rehash) on the client (autofs reload).  You might
want to first force umount of the changed dir or the old mount will
stay.  Also, you should hup nscd so that the entry is not cached.


On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 15:30, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> What is the best practice when you want to move a user's home dir from
> one server to another in an LDAP setting. Server1's /home/<user> is
> mounted via NFS on the client's /server1/users mount point and
server2's
> /home/<user> is mounted via NFS on the client's /server2/users
> mountpoint. The 2 are defined as separate map entries in the LDAP. How
> do I go about migrating a user's home dir from server1 to server2 or
> vice versa.
> 
> Thanks for the help,
> Prakash
> 
> >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/27/05 4:49 AM >>>
> On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> 
> > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> > On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier.
The
> 
> > > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> > upgrade 
> > > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and autofs4-4.1.3
> > became 
> > > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes from
a 
> > > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > > /users (LDAP map)
> > > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > > 
> > > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> > server2. 
> > > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his
> LDAP 
> > > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in the 
> > > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users
logged
> in
> > 
> > > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
noticed
> 
> > > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly and 
> > > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
> points".
> > 
> > > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
> previously
> > 
> > > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> > 
> > I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> > What is the actual problem and symptom?
> > 
> > Ian
> > 
> > Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose
> home
> > dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system (and
> > hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What
will
> > the system do in that case?
> 
> On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
> re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and
> leave 
> the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and the 
> entry isn't mounted. 
> 
> "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if you

> have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have nothing

> actually in use.
> 
> > 
> > And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a user,
do
> I
> > have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen.
Because
> I
> > sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes from
> LDAP
> > and tries to use that and fails.
> 
> autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure
that
> 
> the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is still

> valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you
> might 
> need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions
> (most 
> RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this
> change 
> on access without needing to re-load the map.
> 
> The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about the
> root 
> owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has
> been 
> (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point directories.

> When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they
> will 
> appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
> 
> Ian
> 
> _______________________________________________
> autofs mailing list
> autofs@linux.kernel.org
> http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> 
> _______________________________________________
> autofs mailing list
> autofs@linux.kernel.org
> http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> But what happens in the following scenario.
> 
> In client C, users user1 and user2 are both logged in and their home
> dirs are /server1/users/user1 and /server1/users/user2.
> 
> Now I want to move user1 to a different server server2. His home will be
> changed to /server2/users/user1. I can unmount /server1/users/user1, but
> cannot unmount /server1/users/user2. Now if user1 tries to login, would
> autofs automatically mount /server2/users/user1 for him or keep
> complaining about /server1/users/user1 not available (as the home dir
> has already been moved to server2 and not available in server1 any
> more)?

There's not much you can do about user2, at least till the mount is not 
busy and is umounted. This change should be seen next time the mount is 
accessed.

The server2 mount for user1 should be seen on next access provided 
LDAP has been updated. At least that's what 4.1.4 should do.

If it doesn't I've got an error in the LDAP lookup module.

If in doubt send a HUP signal to the daemon to force a re-read of the map.

Ian

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

Neither is the case. I initialized manually umounted the user before
moving his home directory and even restarted autofs. But it still kept
looking at the previous entry for some strange reason. I did not do the
nscd portion though and probably that is the issue. But finger
<username> properly showed the home directory as the new one???
Also I do not have a LDAP master/slave setup yet? It is just master
every client talks to.

Thanks,
Prakash

>>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 7:22 PM >>>
hmm, the delay would probably be associated with either:
A: time out for the active mount point (see /etc/init.d/autofs, daemon
options which defaults to 300 seconds)
B: latency with replication between ldap consumers and masters/hubs
(i.e. replication latency between master ldap and slave servers (nis
parlance)?


On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 16:18, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> Thanks Chris,
> 
> Of course, I did all that before sending the previous email and still
> the client kept looking at the old mount entry. But about 5 minutes
> after I sent the email it started looking at the new entry. Just some
> delay in the change propagating I guess. Thanks again.
> 
> Prakash
> 
> >>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 6:44 PM >>>
> uhh, you mean you migrated it to a different server?  Now you need to
> update the ldap maps, and force autofs to rehash all the maps (though
it
> really does not do a rehash) on the client (autofs reload).  You might
> want to first force umount of the changed dir or the old mount will
> stay.  Also, you should hup nscd so that the entry is not cached.
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 15:30, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > What is the best practice when you want to move a user's home dir
from
> > one server to another in an LDAP setting. Server1's /home/<user> is
> > mounted via NFS on the client's /server1/users mount point and
> server2's
> > /home/<user> is mounted via NFS on the client's /server2/users
> > mountpoint. The 2 are defined as separate map entries in the LDAP.
How
> > do I go about migrating a user's home dir from server1 to server2 or
> > vice versa.
> > 
> > Thanks for the help,
> > Prakash
> > 
> > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/27/05 4:49 AM >>>
> > On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > 
> > > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> > > On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > > > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier.
> The
> > 
> > > > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> > > upgrade 
> > > > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and
autofs4-4.1.3
> > > became 
> > > > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes
from
> a 
> > > > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > > > /users (LDAP map)
> > > > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > > > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > > > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > > > 
> > > > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> > > server2. 
> > > > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his
> > LDAP 
> > > > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in
the 
> > > > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users
> logged
> > in
> > > 
> > > > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
> noticed
> > 
> > > > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly
and 
> > > > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
> > points".
> > > 
> > > > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
> > previously
> > > 
> > > > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> > > 
> > > I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> > > What is the actual problem and symptom?
> > > 
> > > Ian
> > > 
> > > Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose
> > home
> > > dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system
(and
> > > hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What
> will
> > > the system do in that case?
> > 
> > On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
> > re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and
> > leave 
> > the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and
the 
> > entry isn't mounted. 
> > 
> > "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if
you
> 
> > have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have
nothing
> 
> > actually in use.
> > 
> > > 
> > > And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a
user,
> do
> > I
> > > have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen.
> Because
> > I
> > > sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes
from
> > LDAP
> > > and tries to use that and fails.
> > 
> > autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure
> that
> > 
> > the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is
still
> 
> > valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you
> > might 
> > need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions
> > (most 
> > RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this
> > change 
> > on access without needing to re-load the map.
> > 
> > The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about
the
> > root 
> > owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has
> > been 
> > (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point
directories.
> 
> > When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they
> > will 
> > appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
> > 
> > Ian
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > autofs mailing list
> > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > autofs mailing list
> > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> 
> 

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Ian Kent]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:

> Neither is the case. I initialized manually umounted the user before
> moving his home directory and even restarted autofs. But it still kept
> looking at the previous entry for some strange reason. I did not do the
> nscd portion though and probably that is the issue. But finger
> <username> properly showed the home directory as the new one???
> Also I do not have a LDAP master/slave setup yet? It is just master
> every client talks to.

nscd .... mmmm.

"/etc/init.d/nscd stop" (wry smile) works well for this on Solaris. I'm 
guessing it will do same on Linux. 

If the user info is not seen correctly you are stuck.

> 
> Thanks,
> Prakash
> 
> >>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 7:22 PM >>>
> hmm, the delay would probably be associated with either:
> A: time out for the active mount point (see /etc/init.d/autofs, daemon
> options which defaults to 300 seconds)
> B: latency with replication between ldap consumers and masters/hubs
> (i.e. replication latency between master ldap and slave servers (nis
> parlance)?
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 16:18, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > Thanks Chris,
> > 
> > Of course, I did all that before sending the previous email and still
> > the client kept looking at the old mount entry. But about 5 minutes
> > after I sent the email it started looking at the new entry. Just some
> > delay in the change propagating I guess. Thanks again.
> > 
> > Prakash
> > 
> > >>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 6:44 PM >>>
> > uhh, you mean you migrated it to a different server?  Now you need to
> > update the ldap maps, and force autofs to rehash all the maps (though
> it
> > really does not do a rehash) on the client (autofs reload).  You might
> > want to first force umount of the changed dir or the old mount will
> > stay.  Also, you should hup nscd so that the entry is not cached.
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 15:30, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > What is the best practice when you want to move a user's home dir
> from
> > > one server to another in an LDAP setting. Server1's /home/<user> is
> > > mounted via NFS on the client's /server1/users mount point and
> > server2's
> > > /home/<user> is mounted via NFS on the client's /server2/users
> > > mountpoint. The 2 are defined as separate map entries in the LDAP.
> How
> > > do I go about migrating a user's home dir from server1 to server2 or
> > > vice versa.
> > > 
> > > Thanks for the help,
> > > Prakash
> > > 
> > > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/27/05 4:49 AM >>>
> > > On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > 
> > > > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> > > > On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > > > > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running earlier.
> > The
> > > 
> > > > > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided to
> > > > upgrade 
> > > > > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and
> autofs4-4.1.3
> > > > became 
> > > > > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes
> from
> > a 
> > > > > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > > > > /users (LDAP map)
> > > > > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > > > > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > > > > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1 to
> > > > server2. 
> > > > > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to his
> > > LDAP 
> > > > > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in
> the 
> > > > > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users
> > logged
> > > in
> > > > 
> > > > > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
> > noticed
> > > 
> > > > > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly
> and 
> > > > > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
> > > points".
> > > > 
> > > > > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
> > > previously
> > > > 
> > > > > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> > > > What is the actual problem and symptom?
> > > > 
> > > > Ian
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user whose
> > > home
> > > > dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system
> (and
> > > > hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What
> > will
> > > > the system do in that case?
> > > 
> > > On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch levels 
> > > re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted and
> > > leave 
> > > the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and
> the 
> > > entry isn't mounted. 
> > > 
> > > "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if
> you
> > 
> > > have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have
> nothing
> > 
> > > actually in use.
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a
> user,
> > do
> > > I
> > > > have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen.
> > Because
> > > I
> > > > sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes
> from
> > > LDAP
> > > > and tries to use that and fails.
> > > 
> > > autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be sure
> > that
> > > 
> > > the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is
> still
> > 
> > > valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then you
> > > might 
> > > need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later versions
> > > (most 
> > > RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this
> > > change 
> > > on access without needing to re-load the map.
> > > 
> > > The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about
> the
> > > root 
> > > owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs has
> > > been 
> > > (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point
> directories.
> > 
> > > When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them they
> > > will 
> > > appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
> > > 
> > > Ian
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > autofs mailing list
> > > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > autofs mailing list
> > > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> autofs mailing list
> autofs@linux.kernel.org
> http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> 

Re: autofs-4.1.3 not working properly

[Prakash Velayutham]

No. nscd is what I missed. I will try this for my next home dir move.

Thanks,
Prakash

>>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 7:32 PM >>>
are you sure you stop/restarted nscd?  try this, umount -f
/home/user1;nscd stop;autofs reload;nscd start. 


On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 16:26, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> Neither is the case. I initialized manually umounted the user before
> moving his home directory and even restarted autofs. But it still kept
> looking at the previous entry for some strange reason. I did not do
the
> nscd portion though and probably that is the issue. But finger
> <username> properly showed the home directory as the new one???
> Also I do not have a LDAP master/slave setup yet? It is just master
> every client talks to.
> 
> Thanks,
> Prakash
> 
> >>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 7:22 PM >>>
> hmm, the delay would probably be associated with either:
> A: time out for the active mount point (see /etc/init.d/autofs, daemon
> options which defaults to 300 seconds)
> B: latency with replication between ldap consumers and masters/hubs
> (i.e. replication latency between master ldap and slave servers (nis
> parlance)?
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 16:18, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > Thanks Chris,
> > 
> > Of course, I did all that before sending the previous email and
still
> > the client kept looking at the old mount entry. But about 5 minutes
> > after I sent the email it started looking at the new entry. Just
some
> > delay in the change propagating I guess. Thanks again.
> > 
> > Prakash
> > 
> > >>> Chris Croswhite <csc@cadence.com> 11/29/05 6:44 PM >>>
> > uhh, you mean you migrated it to a different server?  Now you need
to
> > update the ldap maps, and force autofs to rehash all the maps
(though
> it
> > really does not do a rehash) on the client (autofs reload).  You
might
> > want to first force umount of the changed dir or the old mount will
> > stay.  Also, you should hup nscd so that the entry is not cached.
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 15:30, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > What is the best practice when you want to move a user's home dir
> from
> > > one server to another in an LDAP setting. Server1's /home/<user>
is
> > > mounted via NFS on the client's /server1/users mount point and
> > server2's
> > > /home/<user> is mounted via NFS on the client's /server2/users
> > > mountpoint. The 2 are defined as separate map entries in the LDAP.
> How
> > > do I go about migrating a user's home dir from server1 to server2
or
> > > vice versa.
> > > 
> > > Thanks for the help,
> > > Prakash
> > > 
> > > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/27/05 4:49 AM >>>
> > > On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > 
> > > > >>> Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net> 11/25/05 1:47 PM >>>
> > > > On Thu, 24 Nov 2005, Prakash Velayutham wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am new to this list, so please forgive my ignorances.
> > > > > I had a SuSE Pro 9.0 system running autofs (v3) running
earlier.
> > The
> > > 
> > > > > autofs itself did not have any issues at all until I decided
to
> > > > upgrade 
> > > > > the system to SuSE 9.3. It was a clean install, and
> autofs4-4.1.3
> > > > became 
> > > > > the default kernel autofs module. My autofs master map comes
> from
> > a 
> > > > > OpenLDAP server and it contains 3 different mount maps.
> > > > > /users (LDAP map)
> > > > > /protein/users (LDAP map)
> > > > > /import/users (LDAP map)
> > > > > I also have a file-based map in this server (/export/users).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Recently I was trying to move a user's home dir from server1
to
> > > > server2. 
> > > > > After moving his home dir and making the relevant changes to
his
> > > LDAP 
> > > > > entry (homeDirectory attribute), I tried to restart autofs in
> the 
> > > > > above-mentioned server. The server already had several users
> > logged
> > > in
> > > > 
> > > > > under /protein/users. Though the restart did not complain, I
> > noticed
> > > 
> > > > > that autofs status showed "Configured mount points" correctly
> and 
> > > > > removed the currently mounted mount points from "Active mount
> > > points".
> > > > 
> > > > > Is there a reason why? Also strangely the ownerships of the
> > > previously
> > > > 
> > > > > mounted dirs had been changed to root:root.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not sure what is not working or what has been broken.
> > > > What is the actual problem and symptom?
> > > > 
> > > > Ian
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks Ian for a reply. What if I restart autofs when a user
whose
> > > home
> > > > dir is mounted through autofs is already logged into the system
> (and
> > > > hence at least one of the automount entries is being used)? What
> > will
> > > > the system do in that case?
> > > 
> > > On runing "reload" it should, depending on version and patch
levels 
> > > re-read and update the map, leave the mounted directory mounted
and
> > > leave 
> > > the stale map entry for cleanup next time the map is reloaded and
> the 
> > > entry isn't mounted. 
> > > 
> > > "Restart"ing is much more agressive and I wouldn't recommend it if
> you
> > 
> > > have mount that are in use. To restart you really need to have
> nothing
> > 
> > > actually in use.
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > And also if I change the ldap attribute "homeDirectory" for a
> user,
> > do
> > > I
> > > > have to restart autofs in a system for that change to be seen.
> > Because
> > > I
> > > > sometimes see that the system has cached the user's attributes
> from
> > > LDAP
> > > > and tries to use that and fails.
> > > 
> > > autofs doesn't use that attribute so no, but you'll need to be
sure
> > that
> > > 
> > > the automount map entry that is used to access that directory is
> still
> > 
> > > valid following the change and if it also had to be changed then
you
> > > might 
> > > need to "reload" autofs. It's worth pointing out that later
versions
> > > (most 
> > > RedHat versions and 4.1.4 I think) of autofs should recognise this
> > > change 
> > > on access without needing to re-load the map.
> > > 
> > > The other thing I noticed about your query was the question about
> the
> > > root 
> > > owned directory. At variuos times in the past development autofs
has
> > > been 
> > > (mostly intentionally) lazy about cleaning up mount point
> directories.
> > 
> > > When autofs directories don't have a filesystem mounted on them
they
> > > will 
> > > appear root owned. It shouldn't make a difference to operation.
> > > 
> > > Ian
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > autofs mailing list
> > > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > autofs mailing list
> > > autofs@linux.kernel.org
> > > http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
> > 
> > 
> 
>