optional mounts in fstab?

[Bill Davidsen]

David Timms wrote:
> On 24/02/13 06:24, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> ...
>> Yes, that was an attempt to avoid the hang on boot, what I really need
>> is more complex, and I may have to put it in rc.local to make it work,
>> although I will test on Fedora using the nofail option. As I look at the
>> RHEL world, I expect RHEL7 to be along before too long. Perhaps that
>> would satisfy all requirements.
>> It depends on what the 'nofail' option does if the UUID is present but
>> doesn't pass fsck, is it reported and ignored or does it hang the boot?
>
> Hey Bill, I see you are after a RHEL solution, but does any of these
> things you tried work on Fedora 17 or 18 ?
>
fc1[78] have the "nofail" option in fstab, which on paper does what I want. I 
have to set up a test system, or test case on a system, so I can verify that the 
result is what I want, but it looks like the logic is what I want, "if the 
device/UUID is present, do thus with it, else ignore it."

> I wasn't able to do what you are trying to do on F16 or F17, either boot
> deciding it can't complete (which is really incorrect because the
> partitions needed to boot the machine and load user home dirs are
> mounted and usable - it's just the optional backup mount that isn't), or
> the drive not mounted at all.
>
Using the option, or trying to do it otherwise.

> I also realized there is no hot-plug mounting, because it wasn't plugged
> after a user logged in. And if it hot plugged, then it' is mounted for
> just that user under /var/somewhere ...
>
For me that's not an issue, the drives in the array are hot swap, but the boxes 
holding the array are not, so I'm always starting from power-on boot state.

> You would also want to ensure the drive isn't mounted if fsck was going
> to run. Doing it outside the boot process would be good, because then it
> wouldn't pause the boot process until your ~1TB drive is fscked...
>
The time to recover typical issues in a journaled filesystem is minimal, if the 
f/s is really borked there will be an admin present during the boot anyway. And 
these arrays would typically be checked in case of any visible issues anyway, 
like unclean shutdown. The array would be checked, then the filesystem on it.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot