📦 Contributor Guide: Creating Autofs Mounts Using Ansible

The autofs role installs and configures the autofs automounter on Debian/Ubuntu systems. Autofs provides transparent, on-demand NFS mounts—filesystems are mounted automatically when accessed and unmounted after a period of inactivity.

This makes it ideal for:

Large numbers of NFS shares
Environments where boot-time mounts cause delays
Media servers and shared resources

🔗 Source repository: 👉 https://github.com/t3knoid/ansible/tree/main/roles/autofs

✨ Key Features

Automatic NFS mounting – Mounts appear instantly on access
Automatic unmounting – Frees resources after idle timeout
Transparent to users – No manual mount/unmount required
Scalable – Efficiently handles dozens or hundreds of NFS shares
Service-based – Managed via the autofs daemon
Dynamic configuration – Add or remove mounts without reboots

🧰 Prerequisites

Target OS: Debian or Ubuntu
Minimum Ansible version: 2.9
Network access to NFS servers
Root or become access on target hosts

⚙️ Variables

🔴 Required

autofs_nfs_mounts (list): Array of NFS mount definitions. Each entry must include:
- mount_name (string): Short name used in the mount path
- server (string): NFS export in server:/path format
- mount_options (string): NFS mount options (leading - required)

📐 Mount Structure

Each mount follows this structure:

- mount_name: music
  server: 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/music
  mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys

🧠 How It Works

🏗 Autofs Architecture

Autofs relies on a hierarchical configuration model:

Master map (/etc/auto.master) Defines base mount points and associated automount maps
Automount map (/etc/auto.nfs) Lists individual NFS mounts and their options
Autofs daemon Monitors access and mounts/unmounts filesystems dynamically

🔁 Role Execution Flow

Install the autofs package
Configure /etc/auto.master with a /nfs base path
Populate /etc/auto.nfs with defined NFS mounts
Enable and start the autofs service

🗂 Mount Path Generation

Mount paths are generated automatically:

Base path: /nfs
Mount name: music
Resulting path: /nfs/music

🚀 Usage Examples

🟢 Basic NFS Mounts

- hosts: media_servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - autofs
  vars:
    autofs_nfs_mounts:
      - mount_name: photos
        server: 192.168.2.240:/volume1/Photos
        mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys
      - mount_name: music
        server: 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/music
        mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys

🗃 With Group Variables

# inventory/media/group_vars/all/main.yml
autofs_nfs_mounts:
  - mount_name: photos
    server: 192.168.2.240:/volume1/Photos
    mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys
  - mount_name: music
    server: 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/music
    mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys
  - mount_name: books
    server: 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/books
    mount_options: -rw,relatime,hard,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys

Then reference the role:

- hosts: media_servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - autofs

📁 Configuration Files

`/etc/auto.master`

/nfs    /etc/auto.nfs

Defines:

/nfs as the base mount directory
/etc/auto.nfs as the automount map

`/etc/auto.nfs`

# {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
photos -rw,relatime,hard,... 192.168.2.240:/volume1/Photos
music  -rw,relatime,hard,... 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/music
books  -rw,relatime,hard,... 192.168.2.250:/mnt/Data/books
# {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK

Uses blockinfile markers to ensure idempotent updates.

🧩 Task Breakdown

1️⃣ Install autofs

Installs the package
Updates the package cache

2️⃣ Configure auto.master

Deploys template
Sets ownership and permissions
Triggers restart on change

3️⃣ Manage auto.nfs

Uses blockinfile
Preserves unmanaged entries
Triggers restart on change

🔄 Restart Handler

Restarts autofs only when configuration changes occur

🧹 Removal Task

Optional uninstall via remove.yml:

- name: Remove autofs
  ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "roles/autofs/tasks/remove.yml"

Actions:

Stops and disables autofs
Removes the package
Cleans up configuration files

📚 Ansible Module References

ansible.builtin.apt
ansible.builtin.template
ansible.builtin.blockinfile
ansible.builtin.service

📌 Examples in Repository

inventory/semaphore/group_vars/all/main.yml
playbooks/grafana/create_db.yml