Automounting NFS share in OS X into /Volumes

osx_automount_nfs.md

I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out automounts of NFS shares in OS X...

Somewhere along the line, Apple decided allowing mounts directly into /Volumes should not be possible:

/etc/auto_master (see last line):

#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master		# Use directory service
/net			-hosts		-nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home			auto_home	-nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers	-fstab
/-			-static
/-			auto_nfs	-nobrowse,nosuid

/etc/auto_nfs (this is all one line):

/Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

Make sure you:

sudo chmod 644 /etc/auto_nfs

Otherwise the automounter will not be able to read the config and fail with a ... parse_entry: getmapent for map failed... error in /var/log/messages

This will not work (anymore!) though it "should".

$ sudo automount -cv
...
automount: /Volumes/my_mount: mountpoint unavailable

Note that, if you manually create the mount point using mkdir, it will mount. But, upon restart, OS X removes the mount point, and automounting will fail.

What's the solution?

It's so easy my jaw dropped when I figured it out. Basically, we trick OS X into thinking we're mounting somewhere else.

When you're talking about paths in just about any environment, the root folder is the highest path you can reach, whether it's C:\ (windows) or / (*nix)

When you're at this path, attempting to reach the parent path, via .. will keep you at the root path.

For example: /../../../../ is still just /

By now, a few of you have already figured it out.

TL;DR / Solution:

Change your /etc/auto_nfs config from (this is all one line):

/Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

For pre-Catalina: To (this is all one line)

/../Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

For Catalina and up: To (this is all one line)

/System/Volumes/Data/../Data/Volumes/my_mount    -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc nfs://192.168.1.1:/exports/my_share

And re-run the automounter:

$ sudo automount -cv
...
automount: /Volumes/my_mount: mounted

..... there you go! Technically /../Volumes is still /Volumes, but the automounter does not see things that way ;)

This configuration persists the mount across restarts, and creates the mountpoint automatically.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

Feel free to send me large checks and/or high five the screen. hitmeup@l422y.com

Thanks for the extensive reply! I'll test it wiyh the "/./" in the path. Still just one thing:

This is not the same thing though. You cannot eject this drive. If you want to mount the drive automatically in a way that behaves exactly like the drives you mount manually, then you don't want to use autmout. Instead you should use a script to mount the drive, and run that script at login. For that method, look at this: Automatically Connect to a Network Drive. on Mac OS X Startupp and Login. This method is uses the scripting engine on your Mac to automated he. mounting.

The issue is that I need to automount the share because I'm using it from my MacBook Pro. Which I take to work and when I come back I want it to automatically reconnect (as it does) to my NAS. So I am guessing it isn't possible to get the drive icon only when it's (auto)mounted, like, for example, an USB drive.

Oh well, it isn't a big issue. It would have been just cool. Thanks!

There are a couple issues with your scenario. The first is that you will need to make sure the mount is a soft mount, or else you risk the filesystem locking up from what I have experienced. When you leave home, and the suddenly disappears, the NFS automounter will go out to lunch waiting for the NAS to come back online. The second issue is that of the drive icon. You could certainly create an automatic script that monitors the folder for change, and when detected, runs to create or delete the symbolic link on the desktop. This can be difficult to code, but once you get it right, it should work.

The easy solution for your issue is to use a utility to handle the mounts for you. I have used Expandrive for this. Since this is not a multi-user situation, you don’t need NFS, so I would use an AFP share or an SMBv3 share (as these are the fastest) but they are limited to single user access to the mount, unless you make them accessible by the guest/ anonymous user account (not recommended). Expandrive can mount all your NAS drive resources on demand, as well as many cloud drive services, and even SFTP/SSH paths as mountable resources. There are other mounting utilities as well, and you can surely do this with Automator scripts. But this autofs solution probably isn’t the right tool for this. At least, I would not use it for your situation. This is exactly what I use Expandrive for on my MacBook. Expandrive is not free, and they make you pay for every major version upgrade.

@Michelasso I suggest using the free app ConnectMeNow, which will auto-mount on start and on network change, so may do what you want, and for free! It is so much easier to set up and doesn't have the drawback of needing to re-edit /etc/auto_master after a system update - plus you see the server mounted on the desktop 😊

Great alternative!

@jefro108 Ok, so I gave it a try at ConnectMeNow and.. it works! It's a bit not very intuitive to set it up (and one must go into the advanced settings to enable the automount after a network change), still it's only a matter of few minutes if one knows what he's doing. Also it's probably better than rewriting /etc/auto_master after each macOS update indeed.. I have disabled the SMB mounts for automount and I am starting using this instead. Lets' see how it goes!

PS: @apwelsh, yeah, I knew about the soft option for NFS. But NFS on my NAS is a nightmare (very slow) so I just use SMB. Still, thanks to both! 😀

My "struggle" with getting MacOS Catalina NAS NFS shares was quite simple, once I got the right information. Configuration files.

/etc/auto_master:

#
# Automounter master map
#
# Literal mount point for filesystems described in "auto_resources"
#
/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes auto_resources
+auto_master		# Use directory service
    ... the rest is just boiler plate...

/etc/auto resources:

share1 -fstype=nfs,resvport,locallocks,soft,intr,rw,rsize=16384,wsize=16384,fnc 192.168.10.12:/mnt/share1
share2 -fstype=nfs,resvport,locallocks,soft,intr,rw,rsize=16384,wsize=16384,fnc 192.168.10.12:/mnt/share2

Afterwards: sudo automount -vc

One point: Make sure you can manually mount your NFS shares, and have proper access to the mounted filesystem before configuring automount.

Does anyone have a solution to /etc/auto_master being overwritten on Catalina updates>

Does anyone have a solution to /etc/auto_master being overwritten on Catalina updates>

Make a copy and copy it over the new /etc/auto_master after each update. Or restore it from a backup (Time Machine or else) after the update. That's what I used to do, nothing automatic I'm afraid.

Does anyone have a solution to /etc/auto_master being overwritten on Catalina updates>

Make a copy and copy it over the new /etc/auto_master after each update. Or restore it from a backup (Time Machine or else) after the update. That's what I used to do, nothing automatic I'm afraid.

Thanks - that's what I do, but it's really annoying if there's an automatic update while I'm away as I have some jobs which will fail.
Debian has a autofs.master.d folder which allows custom config to be included which doesn't get clobbered - it's a shame there's nothing similar on Catalina.

I struggled with the same "overwritten" problem but found a solution. My first attempt was rewriting auto_master with launchd. Works fine but it feels like a workaround. My "proper" solution is by using vifs and fstab.

The solution is described in "Persistent NFS Mountpoints on macOS".

I struggled with the same "overwritten" problem but found a solution. My first attempt was rewriting auto_master with launchd. Works fine but it feels like a workaround. My "proper" solution is by using vifs and fstab.

The solution is described in "Persistent NFS Mountpoints on macOS".

Thank you - that's really useful - I didn't know about vifs.
On Linux systems, fstab mounts the entries permanently on reboot. I saw that fstab is referenced in auto_master but it hadn't clicked that it was only used by automount on Catalina. Thanks again - I'll do some tests.

Do you still using NFS with Monterey? It was working fine to me until latest 12.7 update. Regards.

It was working fine with:

/etc/auto_master:
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
#/net           -hosts      -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home           auto_home   -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-          -static
/Users/Share        auto_nfs

/etc/auto_nfs:
mntp    -noowners,nolockd,noresvport,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc server:/share

Honestly I haven't used NFS in probably five or six years :)

for the latest OS - Sonoma - the command in /etc/auto_nfs that works for me is:
/System/Volumes/Data/../Data/Volumes/truenasnfs -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc,resvport nfs://192.168.100.4:/mnt/pool/truenasnfs

without "resvport" it was:
ls: /Volumes/truenasnfs: Operation not permitted

without "resvport" it was:

Interesting, I wonder if it's (inadvertently?) using the privileged access it needs for the privileged port (resvport) to access the filesystem as well

for the latest OS - Sonoma - the command in /etc/auto_nfs that works for me is: /System/Volumes/Data/../Data/Volumes/truenasnfs -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc,resvport nfs://192.168.100.4:/mnt/pool/truenasnfs

without "resvport" it was: ls: /Volumes/truenasnfs: Operation not permitted

Unfortunately... not working for MacOS 12.7. Not yet.
/System/Volumes/Data/Users/Share/SSD -fstype=nfs,noowners,nolockd,hard,bg,intr,rw,tcp,nfc,resvport nfs://iomega-nas.local:/SSD

This works:
sudo mount -o resvport,soft,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 iomega-nas.local:/SSD /Users/Share/SSD

> without "resvport" it was: `ls: /Volumes/truenasnfs: Operation not permitted `

Out of curiosity: did you try disabling SIP or however those locking-out features are called nowadays (and if still possible..) ?