How to debug autofs and automount

  • Document ID:3488301
  • Creation Date:26-Jun-2007
  • Modified Date:30-Apr-2012
    • Micro Focus Products:
      Open Enterprise Server
    • SUSE Products:
      SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
      SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Environment

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)

Situation

You configured autofs, but the mount somehow fails. You see something like the following in /var/log/messages:

Jun 22 11:59:04 e1racdev25 automount[32211]: failed to mount /data/share

This message is not helpful.

Resolution

Start autofs with the --debug option. Simply add it to the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/autofs in the following line:
AUTOFS_OPTIONS="--debug"

Restart the service with
rcautofs restart
and you will find a lot more information about what automount does in /var/log/messages.