There are two versions of the Automounter available:

  o automount:  Also called the "legacy" or "user space" automounter,
                ported from SunOS 4.X.  The legacy automounter supports
                NFS Version 2 over UDP ONLY (even on 11.x).  When it
                runs, you see a process named "automount" running.

  o AutoFS:  This is an older version of the Solaris AutoFS automounter.
             The AutoFS automounter supports NFS Version 2 and 3 over UDP
             and TCP.  When it runs, you see a process named "automountd"
             running, and a kernel helper process called "autofs_proc".
             The "automount" command is used to re-read and update the
             AutoFS configuration.  AutoFS is only available on 10.20 NFS
             patch versions since 1999.  It is available on all 11.x NFS
             patch levels.

The /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf variable AUTOFS controls if the legacy
automounter is used (AUTOFS=0), or if the AutoFS is used (AUTOFS=1).  You
cannot run both versions simultaneously on the same host.  You can change
between the versions by stopping the nfs.client service, updating
nfsconf, and then restarting the nfs.client service.

Some parts © 2009 Advameg, Inc.