# Automatically mounting EFS file systems
<a name="mount-fs-auto-mount-onreboot"></a>

You can use the EFS mount helper or NFS to configure an Amazon EC2 instance to automatically mount an EFS file system when the instance starts. 
+ Using the EFS mount helper:
  + Attach an EFS file system when you create a new EC2 Linux instance using the EC2 launch instance wizard.
  + Update the EC2 `/etc/fstab` file with an entry for the EFS file system.
+ Using [NFS without the EFS mount helper](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/nfs-automount-efs.html) to update the EC2 `/etc/fstab` file, for EC2 Linux and Mac instances.

**Note**  
The EFS mount helper does not support automatic mounting on EC2 Mac instances running macOS Big Sur or Monterey. Instead, you can use [NFS to configure the /etc/fstab file on an EC2 Mac instance](nfs-automount-efs.md) to automatically mount an EFS file system.

**Topics**
+ [Enabling automatic mounting on new EC2 Linux instances](mount-fs-auto-mount-on-creation.md)
+ [Enabling automatic mounting on existing EC2 Linux instances](mount-fs-auto-mount-update-fstab.md)
+ [Enabling automatic mounting on EC2 Linux or Mac instances using NFS](nfs-automount-efs.md)