How do I mount sshfs at boot?

Currently, Upstart in Ubuntu does not generate network events. Instead it calls traditional sysvinit. By default NetworkManager is installed and running; rather than emit network events to upstart, it contains a run-parts dispatcher (/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/) which itself simply relies on ifupdown's run-parts dispatcher (/etc/network/*.d/). In particular you care about /etc/network/if-up.d/ and /etc/network/if-down.d/

First set up a unencrypted ssh keypair, so you can mount the point without a prompt. Write a script, place it in /etc/network/if-up.d/ and make executable. The following was discovered on UbuntuForums and was sufficient for me:

#!/bin/sh
## http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=430312
## The script will attempt to mount any fstab entry with an option
## "...,comment=$SELECTED_STRING,..."
## Use this to select specific sshfs mounts rather than all of them.
SELECTED_STRING="sshfs"

# Not for loopback
[ "$IFACE" != "lo" ] || exit 0

## define a number of useful functions

## returns true if input contains nothing but the digits 0-9, false otherwise
## so realy, more like isa_positive_integer 
isa_number () {
    ! echo $1 | egrep -q '[^0-9]'
    return $?
}

## returns true if the given uid or username is that of the current user
am_i () {
        [ "$1" = "`id -u`" ] || [ "$1" = "`id -un`" ]
}

## takes a username or uid and finds it in /etc/passwd
## echoes the name and returns true on success
## echoes nothing and returns false on failure 
user_from_uid () {
    if isa_number "$1"
    then
                # look for the corresponding name in /etc/passwd
        local IFS=":"
        while read name x uid the_rest
        do
                if [ "$1" = "$uid" ]
                        then 
                                echo "$name"
                                return 0
                        fi
        done </etc/passwd
    else
        # look for the username in /etc/passwd
        if grep -q "^${1}:" /etc/passwd
        then
                echo "$1"
                return 0
        fi
    fi
    # if nothing was found, return false
        return 1
}

## Parses a string of comma-separated fstab options and finds out the 
## username/uid assigned within them. 
## echoes the found username/uid and returns true if found
## echoes "root" and returns false if none found
uid_from_fs_opts () {
        local uid=`echo $1 | egrep -o 'uid=[^,]+'`
        if [ -z "$uid" ]; then
                # no uid was specified, so default is root
                echo "root"
                return 1
        else
                # delete the "uid=" at the beginning
                uid_length=`expr length $uid - 3`
                uid=`expr substr $uid 5 $uid_length`
                echo $uid
                return 0
        fi
}

# unmount all shares first
sh "/etc/network/if-down.d/umountsshfs"

while read fs mp type opts dump pass extra
do
    # check validity of line
    if [ -z "$pass" -o -n "$extra" -o "`expr substr ${fs}x 1 1`" = "#" ]; 
    then
        # line is invalid or a comment, so skip it
        continue

    # check if the line is a selected line
    elif echo $opts | grep -q "comment=$SELECTED_STRING"; then

        # get the uid of the mount
        mp_uid=`uid_from_fs_opts $opts`

        if am_i "$mp_uid"; then
                        # current user owns the mount, so mount it normally
                        { sh -c "mount $mp" && 
                                echo "$mp mounted as current user (`id -un`)" || 
                                echo "$mp failed to mount as current user (`id -un`)"; 
                        } &
                elif am_i root; then
                        # running as root, so sudo mount as user
                        if isa_number "$mp_uid"; then
                                # sudo wants a "#" sign icon front of a numeric uid
                                mp_uid="#$mp_uid"
                        fi 
                        { sudo -u "$mp_uid" sh -c "mount $mp" && 
                                echo "$mp mounted as $mp_uid" || 
                                echo "$mp failed to mount as $mp_uid"; 
                        } &
                else
                        # otherwise, don't try to mount another user's mount point
                        echo "Not attempting to mount $mp as other user $mp_uid"
:
                        echo "Not attempting to mount $mp as other user $mp_uid"
                fi
    fi
    # if not an sshfs line, do nothing
done </etc/fstab

wait

If you have a wifi or otherwise unreliable connection, place the following in /etc/network/if-down.d/:

#!/bin/bash
# Not for loopback!
[ "$IFACE" != "lo" ] || exit 0

# comment this for testing
exec 1>/dev/null # squelch output for non-interactive

# umount all sshfs mounts
mounted=`grep 'fuse.sshfs\|sshfs#' /etc/mtab | awk '{ print $2 }'`
[ -n "$mounted" ] && { for mount in $mounted; do umount -l $mount; done; }

Upstart is the preferred method of issuing startup scripts or services in Ubuntu now, although editing /etc/rc.local still works. Upstart allows you to control when the service is run, making sure it happens after initiating your network connection.

It's also possible to edit the symlinks in /etc/rc.X.d directly, (substitute X for the run-level you are using) and add a name such as S99mount to ensure that it's run after the network setup. This will need to point to a script file that mounts the sshfs you are requesting.

_netdev as a mount option should solve this, I believe

Just a thought, but if you're using this as a file server, maybe NFS or Samba would be a better solution than ssh.

Here is another solution in case you don't have a certificate from your remote host and have to use a login/password instead. I'm using in this example the same username and directories used by jldugger to avoid adding confusion.

1. Create a file containing your password in your home directory, and secure it:

   echo 'YourRemoteUserPassword' > ~jldugger/.credentials
   chmod 600 ~jldugger/.credentials
   

2. Edit your /etc/rc.local file and insert the following command at the bottom, but before the "exit 0":

   sshfs -o password_stdin -o nonempty jldugger@storage:/mnt/HD_a2/ /mnt/storage < ~jldugger/.credentials