[Bug 1614282] Re: autofs does not recover from failure to read maps on startup

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

** Changed in: autofs (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Confirmed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1614282

Title:
  autofs does not recover from failure to read maps on startup

Status in autofs package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  This problem is occurring on Ubuntu 16.04 system where autofs and sssd
  are both installed, sssd is configured to provide automount maps, and
  nsswitch.conf directs autofs to use sssd. In a situation when both
  sssd and autofs start before network is up (which happens out-of-the-
  box because of bug 1588915), sssd is unable to obtain automount maps
  from the LDAP server, nor any other data, and serves information from
  its cache. Autofs does not appear to retrieve cached automount maps
  from sssd, which can be verified with automount -m not showing any
  maps. This is accompanied by an error in syslog: "setautomntent:
  lookup(sss): setautomntent: No such file or directory". It goes
  without saying that shares are not mounted either.

  When network is finally up, sssd is able to connect to the LDAP
  server, and autofs retrieves automount maps (automount -m now displays
  maps as expected). However autofs does not attempt to mount shares
  specified by these maps. Attempting to access these shares does not
  help; it is necessary to manually restart autofs service.

  Steps to reproduce:
  1. Start the machine with network interfaces not configured (e.g. cables unplugged).
  2. Verify that sssd works and serves data (e.g. getent passwd, etc).
  3. Check that autofs does not see maps and has not mounted shares: automount -m, ls /shares/...
     (Possibly) expected result: autofs obtains cached maps and mounts shares as specified.
  4. Plug network cable and configure the interface: ifup eth0
  5. Verify that autofs now sees maps: automount -m
  6. Check that shares specified in maps are still unmounted: ls /shares/...
     Expected result: shares will now be mounted.
  7. Restart autofs: systemctl restart autofs
  8. Verify that shares are now mounted.
     This is as expected, but step #7 shouldn't be necessary.

  $ lsb_release -rd
  Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
  Release:        16.04

  $ apt-cache policy autofs sssd-ldap libpam-sss libnss-sss sssd-tools
  autofs:
    Installed: 5.1.1-1ubuntu3
  sssd-ldap:
    Installed: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  libpam-sss:
    Installed: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  libnss-sss:
    Installed: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  sssd-tools:
    Installed: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  [Note: Package sssd is not installed, because it is a virtually empty package that pulls a numbed of unneeded dependencies.]

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