autofs fails to read sss

[mj]

Description: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release: 16.04

autofs:
  Installed: 5.1.1-1ubuntu3
  Candidate: 5.1.1-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 5.1.1-1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
autofs-ldap:
  Installed: 5.1.1-1ubuntu3
  Candidate: 5.1.1-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 5.1.1-1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
sssd:
  Installed: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.13.4-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.13.4-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Expected:

1. Reboot machine
2. Attempt to access a NFS share (e.g. home directory)
3. Directory will be mounted by the auto mounter

Actual:

Error received - No such file or directory

Output of 'systemctl status autofs' shows:

● autofs.service - LSB: Automounts filesystems on demand
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/autofs; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2016-05-23 15:49:01 BST; 1min 29s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 1428 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/autofs start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/autofs.service
           └─1520 /usr/sbin/automount --pid-file /var/run/autofs.pid

May 23 15:49:01 chromium systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Automounts filesystems on demand...
May 23 15:49:01 chromium autofs[1428]: * Starting automount...
May 23 15:49:01 chromium automount[1520]: setautomntent: lookup(sss): setautomntent: No such file or directory
May 23 15:49:01 chromium autofs[1428]: ...done.
May 23 15:49:01 chromium systemd[1]: Started LSB: Automounts filesystems on demand.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Maciej Puzio (maciej-puzio)]

This problem occurs because on Ubuntu 16.06 both sssd and autofs are started too early, before network is up. This has been observed in setups with network interfaces configured statically in /etc/network/interfaces (is that your setup as well?) Sssd itself recovers from this condition gracefully, and eventually connects to the LDAP server when network comes up. However autofs gives up after first failed attempt, and must be restarted manually to to properly mount NFS shares.
Please see discussions for bug 1566508 and bug 1588915 (these are separate issues related to system startup that affect autofs, among other things).