Name Services - Solaris 9 System Administrator - page 359

NIS Components
NIS consists of a master server, optional slave servers, and one or more
clients. The servers store NIS maps and make the information contained in
the maps available to clients on request.

If NIS clients are on a separate subnet from the master server, a slave server must
also exist on that subnet because requests from NIS clients cannot be routed
between subnets. However, the master server and slave servers can communicate
between subnets.

NIS Daemons
Many NIS server and client utilities are implemented as daemons:

ypserv —The NIS server daemon that services client requests for
information.
ypbind —Locates an NIS server ( ypserv daemon) on the same subnet and
provides a lookup service for clients. Must be active on all clients and servers.
ypxfrd —Provides transfer of maps for the ypxfr utility. Only runs on the
master NIS server.
rpc.yppasswdd —Handles requests for changing passwords.
rpc.ypupdated —Handles requests for updating NIS maps.

NIS Maps
NIS stores information in a set of files called maps , which are two-column
tables. The first column is used as a key, and the second column is the infor-
mation associated with that key. Because the maps are organized by key, the
same information might appear in more than one map. For example, host and
associated IP addresses appear in two maps: hosts.byname (where the host-
name is the key and the IP address is the information) and hosts.byaddr
(where the IP address is the key and the hostname is the information). Table
16.4 lists the NIS maps. These maps are physically located under the /var/yp
directory along with several other NIS files.

Table 16.4 The NIS Maps

Keyword Maps Description

aliases mail.aliases, mail.byaddr Mail addresses and aliases

bootparams bootparams Location of root, swap, and dump

partitions for diskless workstations

ethers ethers.byaddr , ethers.byname Ethernet addresses of systems

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