After the user's file system is allocated, you need to mount it at a mount point off the root directory to make it available. The preferred place to mount all user file systems is a user directory under the /u user directory. In the z/OS system, there are two ways to accomplish this:

1. Direct mount. For a direct mount, allocate an intermediate file system (we called it OMVS.USERS) to be mounted between the root file system and all user file systems. Create a mount point using the mkdir command and issue the mount command. (To make the mount permanent, you will need to add the file system name and its mount point to the BPXPRMxx member.) Figure 1 shows this.

   For more information, see Using direct mount.

   Figure 1. Direct mount. To permanently mount file systems, code MOUNT statements in SYS1.PARMLIB member BPXPRMxx.
2. Automount facility. You must customize the automount facility to control all user file systems to automatically mount them when they are needed. This method is the preferred way of managing user file systems because it saves administration time. Figure 2 shows this. See /etc/auto.master for more information.
   Figure 2. Automount facility. The automount facility dynamically allocates pseudodirectories to act as mount points and mount file systems only when files are accessed.