This is already done by the Berkeley AMD (do not know if the Linux
autofs supports something like this though).
The labels I am talking about are just supposed to be used for
physical block devices attached to the host.
So, you need a combination of features: on the machine hosting
alan_home_dir you use the volume labels to mount the disk in a well
known location. And you use an automounter map to access this file
system from the other machines on the network.
Miguel.