From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)>
Subject: [OSX/Admin] How to create a custom boot script to mount a file server
   Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:23:30 -0400
Msg# 1710
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Often it's useful to create your own boot scripts to statically mount
your file server, instead of hacking commands into existing boot
scripts (which might get overwritten by future software updates).

Using your own static mount commands ensures creating mounts
exactly where you want them, without weirdness from the automounter.

Also, once the scripts are configured correctly and tested, you can
just copy them around to the rest of the net easily.

Plus, you can configure Rush to "Require" your script as a dependency,
to ensure Rush doesn't start until your mount commands have successfully
executed (preventing OSX from parallelizing the scripts on boot).

Creating a custom boot script is fairly easy to do under OSX..
it just involves:

        1) Creating a directory in /Library/StartupItems
        2) Creating 2 files in that dir: a script and a plist file.
        3) Modifying the "requires" line in the Rush "StarupParameters.plist" file


HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM STATIC MOUNT BOOT SCRIPT
-----------------------------------------------
1) As root, create a "MountFileServer" directory in /Library/StartupItems:

      mkdir -m 755 /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer
      chown 0:0    /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer

2) In that directory, create a bourne shell script called:

      /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/MountFileServer

   Note the filename is the same as the directory. Into that file, put:

--- snip
#!/bin/sh

### Set up local mounts for our file server

if [ -x /etc/rc.common ]; then . /etc/rc.common; fi
export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/libexec

if [ "`tty`" = "not a tty" ]; then
    LOGGER="logger -t MountFileServer"
else
    LOGGER="logger -s -t MountFileServer"
fi

# HANDLE STOP/START
ARG1=${1:-start}                 # assume 'start' if unset
case "$ARG1" in
    stop)
        $LOGGER "Un-mounting /meade/net"
        ( umount /meade/net ) 2>&1 | $LOGGER
        ;;
    start)
        # ENSURE MOUNT POINT EXISTS
        if [ ! -d /meade/net ]; then
            $LOGGER "Creating /meade/net mount point"
            mkdir -p -m 755 /meade/net
        fi
        # ALREADY MOUNTED? DONT MOUNT TWICE
        if mount | grep -q /meade/net; then
            $LOGGER "/meade/net already mounted"
        else
            $LOGGER "Mounting /meade/net"
            ( mount -t nfs -o intr,bg 192.168.0.14:/net /meade/net ) 2>&1 | $LOGGER
        fi
        ;;
    restart)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac
exit 0
--- snip

    Don't include the "--- snip" lines in the script.

3) Make the following modifications to the above script:

       o Change all instances of "/meade/net" to the mount point
         you want to use. Be sure your mount point be BELOW the root
         directory, and not in the root itself, eg. "/jobs/stuff"
         and *not* just "/stuff".

       o Change the instance of "192.168.0.14:/net" to the IP of your
         file server, followed by a ":", and the directory on the
         server that you're trying to mount. The example shows an NFS
         mount, but you can change the mount command to be something else.

   NOTE: Use the IP address instead of the hostname for your file server
   in the mount command. At boot time DNS/NIS may not be fully operational,
   so avoid situations that can induce hostname lookups.

4) Create a "StartupParameters.plist" file in that dir, eg:

       vi /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/StartupParameters.plist

   ..with the following contents:

---- snip
{
  Description     = "Mounts the local file server";
  Provides        = ("MountFileServer");
  Requires        = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver");
  OrderPreference = "Last";
  Messages =
  {
    start = "Mounting local file server";
    stop  = "Unmounting local file server";
  };
}
---- snip


5) Configure the permissions:

       chown -R 0:0 /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/
       chmod 755 /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/
       chmod 755 /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/MountFileServer
       chmod 644 /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/StartupParameters.plist

6) Run the script manually to test that it mounts and umounts your file
   server correctly:

       /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/MountFileServer start
       /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer/MountFileServer stop

7) Now configure Rush to start *after* your mount script.

   Edit the Rush boot file /Library/StartupItems/Rush/StartupParameters.plist:

       vi /Library/StartupItems/Rush/StartupParameters.plist

   ..then find the line that reads:

           Requires        = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver");

   ..and add "MountFileServer" to the list, so that it now reads:

           Requires        = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver", "MountFileServer");

   Be sure to include the extra comma, so that the syntax is consistent.

8) Now reboot to check your work.

   When you login, you should find your file server mounted, and rush started.
   Your /var/log/system.log should show mount messages from your script,
   and messages from Rush *following* those.

   To make this change to OTHER machines is easy: just copy the
   /Library/StartupItems/Rush and /Library/StartupItems/MountFileServer
   dirs to the other machines, making sure to preserve permissions, eg:

       scp -rp /Library/StartupItems/{Rush,MountFileServer} somehost:/Library/StartupItems/

   That's it.

CAVEATS
-------
  o The above has been tested on Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5),
    and the technique follows Apple's rules for boot scripts.
    [Works with Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7) as well. -erco 07/11/12]

  o Step #5 (setting permissions) is very important. OSX is very picky
    about all boot files being owned by root, and not writable to others.

  o When copy/pasting from the above, be sure your mail/news reader
    window is set wide enough, so that lines aren't wrapping, otherwise
    it may mess up the script's code.

  o It goes without saying, but don't include the "--- snip" lines when
    you paste.

  o If you decide to change the name of the MountFileServer script,
    be careful; the directory name must be the same as the script's.
    So make sure you follow through by replacing all instances of that
    name within both the script and plist files.

SEE ALSO
--------
    If you want to make a boot script that creates /several/ mounts,
    you may want to use this more robust script instead:
    http://seriss.com/cgi-bin/rush/newsgroup-threaded.cgi?-view+1847+1847

   From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)>
Subject: Re: [OSX/Admin] How to create a custom boot script to mount a file
   Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 07:12:58 -0400
Msg# 1731
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Greg Ercolano wrote:
> 4) Create a "StartupParameters.plist" file in that dir, eg:
> [..]
> ---- snip
> {
>   Description     = "Mounts the local file server";
>   Provides        = ("MountLocalFileServer");
>   Requires        = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver");

    *** THE FOLLOWING IS FOR TIGER (10.4) AND OLDER
    *** THIS INFO DOES *NOT* APPLY TO LEOPARD (10.5)

    If you get errors in the /var/log/system.log like:

	NFS Portmap: RPC: Port mapper failure - RPC: Unable to send

    ..then edit your:

	/Library/StartupItems/MountLocalFileServer/StartupParameters.plist

    ..file, and change the "Requires" line to include "NFS", eg:

BEFORE: Requires = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver");
 AFTER: Requires = ("Network", "System Log", "Resolver", "NFS");
                                                         ^^^^^

    This way your boot script won't be started until the client side
    NFS daemons have been started.

    "NFS" is what the System's own 'NFS' startup script supplies when
    starting the NFS daemons, so it's probably a good thing to
    'Require' if your system has an /System/Library/StartupItems/NFS directory.