automount volumes not always visible from client

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10.4.3 servers, 10.3.9 managed clients w/network homedirs.
Around 5% of our client machines, freshly started each day, do not automount the server in /Network/Servers/. Users can log in, but they’re greeted with the message that their home directory cannot be found. Users can manually connect, but that’s not much use (just a share, not a virtual homedir). Restarting the machine usually fixes the problem, in some cases removing and re-adding the LDAP info in Directory Access is necessary.

So, where is this automount info being stored on the client? Is the file getting corrupted, or is there some other reason the client fails to automount the server at startup?

I have a theory that it may be due to slow switch negotiation at startup. Cisco engineers have not been able to figure out why linking to the switch can slow startup for 2-3min. The second the switch link goes green, the client startup completes and presents the login window. Could this cause our automount problem? Why then do only a few machines fail to automount when all machines have the same slow negotiation at startup?

Plagued us for at least a year, any advice much appreciated.

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