linux: automount internal hard drive during boot?

i try to create my own NAS and i need to automount the internal sata disks during boot
i know i could do using fstab but im searching for a more easy/generalized way so its easier to scale with less handwork needed for every hard drive attached (or every mainboard added to the cluster)

so anyone knows how to automount internal disks without using fstab like ubuntu does for usb drives?

im using ubuntu server 9.10
thx all

Answer

There are a number of factors involved
in 'hotplugging' and HAL is only one
of them. When a new device is added,
e.g. a USB drive is plugged in, the
following occurs (roughly):

* The kernel becomes aware of a new device and registers it in /sys.
* Udev creates a device node (e.g. /dev/sdb1), and loads the

drivers/modules needed.
* The HAL daemon is notified by D-Bus and adds the device and what it
can find out about it to its database.
* The addition of the new device is broadcast by HAL over D-Bus to
whatever programs are subscribing,
e.g. Thunar, which shows it as an icon
in the shortcuts side panel, or
Metacity/Nautilus which will add an
icon to the desktop.
* Another program listening may be a volume manager, such as
thunar-volman or AutoFS, configured to
automatically create mount points and
mount certain types of drives, start
Rhythmbox whenever an iPod is
connected, etc.

source: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HAL