Linux – Automatic remount cifs/SMB after short network interruption

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A Windowsserver provides a network directory called data via CIFS/SMB protocol. The data folder is mounted on a Linux client with password and user authentification.

Sometimes the drive gets disconnected, but is available again after a second. I do not know exactly why, but it seems to be because of the Windows server or a broken network component.

How can I make Linux reconnect automatic as soon as possible?

Best Answer

I'd recommend mounting it via autofs. This is a service that will mount a directory on demand (for example if you cd into it or ls it) and unmount it automatically after a user defined timeout.

  • Install the autofs package for your distribution (by the way, remember to include your distro in your questions since an answer's details may depend on it).

  • Add the following to /etc/auto.master

    /media/[my_server] /etc/auto.[my_server]

    Where /media/[my_server] is the mount point of the share.

  • Create a file /etc/autofs/auto.[my_server] with this line:

    [any_name] -fstype=cifs,[other_options] ://[remote_server]/[share_name]

For more information see here and here.

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