How to Support Incompatible Client Operating System Versions

1. Combine the architecture type with a variable that determines the operating system type of the client.

   The autofs OSREL variable can be combined with the CPU variable to form a name that determines both CPU type and OS release.

2. Create the following map entry.

   bin aa:/export/local/bin/$CPU$OSREL

For SPARC clients running version 5.6 of the operating system, you need to export /export/local/bin/sparc5.6 from the server and create similar entries for other releases. Because operating systems attempt to preserve backward compatibility with executable formats, assume that the OS release is not a factor and eliminate it from future examples.

So far, you have set up an entry for a single server aa. In a large network, you want to replicate these shared files across several servers. Each server should have a close network proximity to the clients it serves so that NFS traffic is confined to local network segments.