Solaris

Friends,
I am new to Solaris, but familiar with Linux. Could you throw some light on the need for /export/home directory in Solaris.
In Linux, the default home directory for a normal user is /home/<username>. If domain concept is implemented, then the /home directory of server will be mounted by the client, either via mounting in /etc/fstab or via autofs.
But in Solaris, there are 2 directories /home and /export/home. I am confused with the need for this. Each time a user is created we need to specify as
useradd -d /export/home/<username> -m <username>.
if I give
useradd <username>,
the /etc/passwd shows /home/<username> as the home directory, but when the user logs in it says
no home directory...Why is this so...
I think this is something related to sharing and autofs concept but not clear...
pls help.
thanks a lot......

The usual way is to set-up automounting for /home, either locally or remotely via NFS.
Alternatively, you can disable /home automounting and use /home as a regular home directories root.

ok thank you.. but pls spare a few minutes to let me know how this /export/home concept comes into picture during automounting. when I look at /etc/auto_master it just has /home and in /etc/auto_home, there is just +auto_home. probably, I have not studied more on this concept.....thank u

Solaris default settings assume home automounting is already set-up in a remote name service like NIS or LDAP.

If this isn't the case like in a standalone configuration, you can add the following line in /etc/auto_home file:

* -fstype=lofs :/export/home/&

Alternatively, you can simply remove the /home line in /etc/auto_master and use /home the traditional way.

thank u.