Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
This chapter describes the name services supported by the Solaris 9 operat-
ing system. The first part of the chapter provides an overview of the servic-
es. The second part of the chapter covers the Network Information Service
(NIS) in more detail. The final part of the chapter summarizes the Network
Information Service Plus (NIS+).
Solaris Name Services
A name service or naming service provides a centralized location for informa-
tion used by users and systems to communicate with each other across the
network. The name service not only stores the information but also provides
mechanisms to manage and access that information.
This information is referred to as a namespace and typically includes the fol-
lowing:
Hostnames and their IP addresses
User accounts and their passwords
Access permissions
Without a centralized name service, each system would have to maintain its
own copy of the information. For example, by default the Solaris 9 system
uses the /etc/hosts file to resolve hostnames to IP addresses. This is fine for
a small number of systems, but for a large number of systems, this approach
becomes a maintenance nightmare. A centralized name service eliminates
redundancy, improves consistency, and reduces administration costs.
The next several sections provide a high-level overview of the supported
naming services. Following this overview is a detailed description of the
name service switch, which is used to determine which naming services are
used and in what order.
Supported Naming Services
The Solaris 9 operating system supports six naming services:
The original Unix name configuration, referred to as the /etc files
The Domain Name Service (DNS)
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
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