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Auto-mount remote SMB volumes.md
Note that `/` has been read-only since Catalina, but this didn’t affect things until a security update in May 2021 deleted the `/mnt` symlink. It’s … difficult but not impossible to re-create that, but but it’s much easier to just point directly to the original location, and `automount` doesn’t care. (I seem to remember there being some problem with using a static mount point in `/Volumes`, as suggested in https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/261810, but I can’t recall the details.) **Pre-Catalina initialisation:** `sudo mkdir -p /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares` **Post-Catalina initialisation:** Use `synthetic.conf` to recreate `/mnt` as a firmlink (<https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/creating-root-level-directories-and-symbolic-links-on-macos-catalina/>): ``` # note: tab-delimited, reboot to take effect mnt /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares ``` Add the following to `/etc/auto_master`: ``` /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares auto_shares -nosuid,noowners ``` **(This change is likely to be clobbered by system updates, especially from Catalina onwards.)** Then in `auto_shares` (permissions 400): ``` username -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz:/obs/obsuser/username infosci-shared -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/obs/obsdept/infosci/shared infosci-software -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/obs/obsdept/infosci/software lecture-dropboxes -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@storage.hcs-p01.otago.ac.nz/its-alldropboxes # "V2" may differ, "u" is the first letter of the username. Check under Windows to get the actual path. staff-desktop -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/mdr/Profiles-V2/u/username ... ``` **Note:** If you are already logged into the machine with the corresponding domain account, then the password shouldn’t be needed as you are already authenticated. The username is still necessary (i.e., `… ://username@registry.otago.ac.nz:/…`). This mans the file doesn’t need to be locked down as severely as it does if it contains passwords. (This file is not known to macOS, so it should generally survive system updates.) Reload configuration with `sudo automount -vc`. See also https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/261813 for a more sophisticated version using a script. **Ensure that the mount point is not indexed by Time Machine.** I suspect that this tickles the shares inside the folder, which seems to result in them being mounted over and over again until anything filesystem related grinds to a halt (the most I’ve seen is about 2300 mounts!). This appears to be a known problem under Catalina anyway; see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250752057 for further discussion and a quick fix without having to reboot (TL;DR: disable the automount in `auto_master`, reload configuration, then `umount` repeatedly on anything remaining until it’s had enough ☺️).
Note that `/` has been read-only since Catalina, but this didn’t affect things until a security update in May 2021 deleted the `/mnt` symlink. It’s … difficult but not impossible to re-create that, but but it’s much easier to just point directly to the original location, and `automount` doesn’t care. (I seem to remember there being some problem with using a static mount point in `/Volumes`, as suggested in https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/261810, but I can’t recall the details.) **Pre-Catalina initialisation:** `sudo mkdir -p /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares` **Post-Catalina initialisation:** Use `synthetic.conf` to recreate `/mnt` as a firmlink (<https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/creating-root-level-directories-and-symbolic-links-on-macos-catalina/>): ``` # note: tab-delimited, reboot to take effect mnt /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares ``` Add the following to `/etc/auto_master`: ``` /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/shares auto_shares -nosuid,noowners ``` **(This change is likely to be clobbered by system updates, especially from Catalina onwards.)** Then in `auto_shares` (permissions 400): ``` username -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz:/obs/obsuser/username infosci-shared -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/obs/obsdept/infosci/shared infosci-software -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/obs/obsdept/infosci/software lecture-dropboxes -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@storage.hcs-p01.otago.ac.nz/its-alldropboxes # "V2" may differ, "u" is the first letter of the username. Check under Windows to get the actual path. staff-desktop -fstype=smbfs,soft ://username:password@registry.otago.ac.nz/mdr/Profiles-V2/u/username ... ``` **Note:** If you are already logged into the machine with the corresponding domain account, then the password shouldn’t be needed as you are already authenticated. The username is still necessary (i.e., `… ://username@registry.otago.ac.nz:/…`). (This file is not known to macOS, so it should generally survive system updates.) Reload configuration with `sudo automount -vc`. See also https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/261813 for a more sophisticated version using a script. **Ensure that the mount point is not indexed by Time Machine.** I suspect that this tickles the shares inside the folder, which seems to result in them being mounted over and over again until anything filesystem related grinds to a halt (the most I’ve seen is about 2300 mounts!). This appears to be a known problem under Catalina anyway; see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250752057 for further discussion and a quick fix without having to reboot (TL;DR: disable the automount in `auto_master`, reload configuration, then `umount` repeatedly on anything remaining until it’s had enough ☺️).
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