Autofs

Use autofs on the NFS client to auto-mount.

For Ubuntu, install the autofs package after you've gotten nfs-common set up.

NFS4 home directory example

In /etc/auto.master:

/home	file:/etc/auto.home --ghost -t 600

The ghost argument makes the directories appear to be present under /home even when they aren't actually mounted. The -t 600 gives a 10-minute (600 seconds) timeout.

In /etc/auto.home:

barney -fstype=nfs4,port=2049,soft  123.45.67.89:/users/&