Does anyone have any tips or best practices for using NFS mounted directories?

Solution 1:

In Finder press:

• ⇧+⌘+G to go to a directory. Since the automounting of /net is handled by the operating system (via Autofs, see the technical white paper) it will mount the share.

• ⌘+K to open the Connections window, where you can even save your commonly accessed locations.

(see the Go menu)

But I don't think you can rename connections.

Solution 2:

You can mount any NFS share using the fstab file (http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html). I found it to be the best alternative for mounting share so they appear in the top level of Finder (and also available in the sidebar), a feat impossible using autofs. Most importantly, it gives you the ability to add mount options like nolocks and rsize/wsize, which usually increase performance. YMMV.