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Of Network Information. This Collection of Network Information Is Called The NIS Namespace

The Network Information Service (NIS), originally called Yellow Pages (YP), is a client-server directory service that distributes system configuration data like user and host names between computers on a network. It allows multiple computers to share configuration files from a central server, making network administration more manageable through centralized control over network information stored in NIS maps. NIS clients can access these maps via servers running the YP and NIS services.

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85 views3 pages

Of Network Information. This Collection of Network Information Is Called The NIS Namespace

The Network Information Service (NIS), originally called Yellow Pages (YP), is a client-server directory service that distributes system configuration data like user and host names between computers on a network. It allows multiple computers to share configuration files from a central server, making network administration more manageable through centralized control over network information stored in NIS maps. NIS clients can access these maps via servers running the YP and NIS services.

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prasanna_erudite
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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NIS

The Network Information Service or NIS (originally called Yellow Pages or YP) consists of a client–server
directory service protocol for distributing system configuration data such as user and host names
between computers on a computer network.

NIS is a distributed database system that lets many computers share configuration files like
password files, group files, host tables, etc from the central network server (master server). NIS
makes network administration more manageable by providing centralized control over a variety
of network information. This collection of network information is called the NIS namespace.

 NIS maps can replace or be used with the configuration files that exist on each UNIX
system.
 NIS maps are located in the /var/yp/domainname directory (where domainname is the
name of the NIS domain).

 The following terms are crucial for an understanding of NIS:

 A NIS server is a machine which responds to requests for NIS service.


 There are two types of NIS servers: master and slaves. Master server can be only one for
a NIS domain and it can feed with information any number of optional slave servers. The
NIS database called NIS maps is built on master server and propagated to slave servers. It
can also be pulled by slave servers. Slave servers are expected to contain exact copies of
maps of the master server. 
 The YPSERV daemon is run on both servers and clients. It is what answers NIS requests.
 YPXFRD daemon is usually run on the master server, to speed up transfers to the slaves.
Responds to requests, generated in the slave servers by using the ypxfr command to pull
the maps from the master. Transfers NIS maps at a high speed
 A NIS CLIENT is any machine which is allowed to access the NIS maps. The YPBIND
daemon that is running of client machine is making all NIS requests on behave of the
client.

set up and start the NIS master server

Now we need to set the domainname, make sure the correct nsswitch.conf file is in
place, and start the NIS master server processes.

# domainname yourdomain
# domainname > /etc/defaultdomain

The first time you start ypinit, it will need to get it's naming information from
local files:
# cp /etc/nsswitch.files /etc/nsswitch.conf

Add entries for all NIS servers to /etc/hosts.

Start the NIS master server processes:

# ypinit -m
# cp /etc/nsswitch.nis /etc/nsswitch.conf

# /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypstart     (or)


# svcadm enable nis/server
# svcadm enable nis/client

Check that the NIS server is working:

# ypcat passwd

To Update NIS Maps

# cd /var/yp

# /usr/ccs/bin/make passwd

(Make sure that share /export/home directory which is having all the users info

And restart the nfs services)

Add a client to the new NIS domain


Edit /etc/hosts to include entries for the NIS master and all slaves.

# domainname yourdomain
# domainname > /etc/defaultdomain

# cp /etc/nsswitch.nis /etc/nsswitch.conf    

# ypinit -c
# /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypstart     (normally called from /etc/init.d/rcp)
(or)
# svcadm enable nis/client
# ypwhich should return nis_master
Also the following commands:
# ypcat passwd

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