Examples of Custom Maps

The following two examples show how you might customize maps. Use your preferred text editor to modify the /var/yp/NISLDAPmapping file as needed. For more information about file attributes and syntax, see the NISLDAPmapping(4) man page and the LDAP naming services information in Chapter 9, LDAP Basic Components and Concepts (Overview).

Example 1–Moving Host Entries

This example shows how to move host entries from the default location to another (nonstandard) location in the DIT.

Change the nisLDAPobjectDN attribute in the NISLDAPmapping file to the new base LDAP distinguished name (DN). For this example, the internal structure of the LDAP objects is unchanged, so objectClass entries are unchanged.

Change:

nisLDAPobjectDN hosts: \
                        ou=hosts,?one?, \
                        objectClass=device, \
                        objectClass=ipHost

To:

nisLDAPobjectDN hosts: \
                        ou=newHosts,?one?, \
                        objectClass=device, \
                        objectClass=ipHost

This change causes entries to be mapped under

   dn: ou=newHosts, dom=domain1, dc=sun, dc=com

instead of under

   dn: ou=hosts, dom=domain1, dc=sun, dc=com.

Example 2–Implementing a Custom Map

This example shows how to implement a custom map.

A hypothetical map, servdate.bynumber, contains information about the servicing dates for systems. This map is indexed by the machine's serial number which, in this example, is 123. Each entry consists of the machine owner's name, a colon, and a comma-separated list of service dates, such as John Smith:1/3/2001,4/5/2003.

The old map structure is to be mapped onto LDAP entries of the following form:

dn: number=123,ou=servdates,dc=... \
                 number: 123 \
                 userName: John Smith \
                 date: 1/3/2001 \
                 date: 4/5/2003 \
                  .
                  .
                  .
                 objectClass: servDates

By examining the NISLDAPmapping file, you can see that the mapping closest to the required pattern is group. The custom mappings can be modeled on the group mapping. Since there is only one map, no nisLDAPdatabaseIdMapping attribute is required. The attributes to be added to NISLDAPmapping are the following:

nisLDAPentryTtl servdate.bynumber:1800:5400:3600

nisLDAPnameFields servdate.bynumber: \
                        ("%s:%s", uname, dates)

nisLDAPobjectDN servdate.bynumber: \
                        ou=servdates, ?one? \
                        objectClass=servDates:

nisLDAPattributeFromField servdate.bynumber: \
                        dn=("number=%s,", rf_key), \
                        number=rf_key, \
                        userName=uname, \
                        (date)=(dates, ",")

nisLDAPfieldFromAttribute servdate.bynumber: \
                        rf_key=number, \
                        uname=userName, \
                        dates=("%s,", (date), ",")