Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Verifying NIS Configuration
Several commands provide access to NIS configuration information. These
commands can be used to verify a client configuration and check the con-
tents of the maps. Consult the
System Reference Manual
for additional
details:
ypcat(1)
—Lists the contents of the specified map.
➤
ypmatch(1)
—Returns data that matches the specified key from the speci-
fied map.
➤
ypwhich(1)
—Returns the name of the NIS server or map master.
➤
When used with the
-m
command-line argument, the
ypwhich
command
returns a list of all available maps.
Network Information Service Plus
(NIS+)
NIS+ is similar to NIS but provides additional features and improvements.
In addition to providing centralized administration and access to domain
data, it also supports hierarchical domains that can be configured to reflect
the structure of an organization. NIS provides only a flat domain. Whereas
NIS provides no authentication, NIS+ provides Data Encryption Standard
(DES)-based authentication. In addition, whereas NIS propagates updated
information in a batch mode, NIS+ propagates incremental updates immedi-
ately. Like NIS, NIS+ supports the optional use of redundant servers
(referred to as
replicas
). These replicas provide load balancing and alternative
servers in case the master NIS+ server fails.
Whereas NIS stores its data in files referred to as
maps
, NIS+ stores its data
in files referred to as
tables
. NIS+ provides tables for all the data stored in
NIS maps, plus some additional tables for credentials, time zone informa-
tion, and automount information. Table 16.5 lists the NIS+ tables.
The tables are stored under a directory by the name of the
domain
. This
directory contains three other directories:
ctx_dir.
domain
, which is used for
xfn
(FNS) data;
org_dir.
domain
, which is used to store the tables; and
groups_dir.
domain
, which is used for group information.
