Here are the steps to be able to use the current NIS and NFS infrastructure from an AIX server:

# cat /etc/resolv.conf  
domain          dev.example.com
nameserver      10.239.208.24
nameserver      10.251.140.96
search          dev.example.com int.example.com prod.example.com
#
# TERM=vt220 smitty
/*
 * Communications Applications and Services
 *  TCP/IP
 *   Further Configuration
 *    Name Resolution
 *     Hosts Table (/etc/hosts)
 *      Add a Host
 *       INTERNET ADDRESS (dotted decimal)               [10.254.234.22]
 *       HOST NAME                                       [neptune.dev.example.com]
 *       ALIAS(ES) (if any - separated by blank space)   [neptune]
 *       COMMENT (if any - for the host entry)           [NIS server for domain devex]
 *  NFS
 *   Network Information Service (NIS)
 *    Configure / Modify NIS
 *     Change NIS Domain Name of this Host
 *      Domain name of this host                        [devex]
 *     Configure this Host as a NIS Client
 *      NIS server - required if there are              [neptune]
 *   Network File System (NFS)
 *    Configure NFS on This System
 *     Start Automounter
 *      PARAMETERS to be used for the automount daemon  [-n]
 */

Launch the automountd at run-level #2:

# cat << EOF > /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/Sautomountd
#!/usr/bin/env ksh
#################################################################
# name: {K|S}automountd
# purpose: script that will start or stop the automountd service.
#################################################################

case "$1" in
start)
  /usr/sbin/automount -n
  ;;
stop)
  stopsrc -g autofs
  ;;
*)
  echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
  exit 1
esac

exit 0
EOF
# ln /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/Sautomountd /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/Kautomountd
# chmod 754 /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/?automountd

In the same time, modify the automountd service to add some arguments that must be passed to the program. This is a necessary step to be able to automount the correct remote path using our customized autofs server. Here is how to do so:

# chssys -s automountd -a "-DOSNAME=`uname -s` -DCPU=`uname -p` -DNATISA=`bootinfo -K` -DOSREL=`uname -v`.`uname -r`"
# stopsrc -g autofs
# /usr/sbin/automount -n

Very important

To resolve information correctly, it was needed to explicitly specify the ordering of name resolution and hosts setting in /etc/netsvc.conf. This file corresponds to /etc/nsswitch.conf under Solaris, GNU/Linux or the BSDs for hosts name resolution. For example:

# cat << EOF >> /etc/netsvc.conf
hosts = local, nis, bind
EOF