Preface

Solaris Naming Administration Guide describes how to customize and administer the four name services: NIS+, NIS, FNS, and DNS once they have been initially set up and configured. This manual is part of the Solaris 2.6 Release System and Network Administration manual set.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is written primarily for system and network administrators, It assumes you are an experienced system administrator.

Although this book introduces networking concepts relevant to Solaris name services, it makes no attempt to explain networking fundamentals or describe the administration tools offered by the Solaris environment. If you administer networks, this manual assumes you already know how they work and have already chosen your favorite tools.

(Solaris Naming Setup and Configuration Guide explains how to initially set up and configure the four Solaris naming services.)

How This Book Is Organized

This book has seven parts:

Part I, Introduction to Solaris Naming

This part provides an introduction and overview of namespaces and Solaris naming services, and using the nsswitch.conf file to coordinate naming service usage.

• Chapter 1, Introduction to Name Services, provides an overview describing what namespaces and naming services are and what they do, then briefly describes the four Solaris naming services: DNS, NIS, FNS, and NIS+.

• Chapter 2, The Name Service Switch, describes describes the name service switch, what it does, and how clients use it to obtain naming information from one or more sources.

Part II, NIS+ Introduction and Overview

This part describes NIS+:

• Chapter 3, Introduction to NIS+, provides an overview of the Network Information Service Plus (NIS+).

• Chapter 4, The NIS+ Namespace, describes the structure of the NIS+ namespace, the servers that support it, and the clients that use it.

• Chapter 5, NIS+ Tables and Information, describes the structure of NIS+ tables and provides a brief overview of how they can be set up.

• Chapter 6, Security Overview, describes the NIS+ security system and how it affects the entire NIS+ namespace.

Part III, Administering NIS+

This part describes how to administer a functioning NIS+ namespace.

• Chapter 7, Administering NIS+ Credentials, describes NIS+ credentials and how to administer them.

• Chapter 8, Administering NIS+ Keys, describes NIS+ keys and how to administer them.

• Chapter 10, Administering NIS+ Access Rights, describes NIS+ access rights and how to administer them.

• Chapter 11, Administering Passwords, describes how to use the passwd command from the point of view of an ordinary user (NIS+ principal) and how an NIS+ administrator manages the password system.

• Chapter 12, Administering NIS+ Groups, describes NIS+ groups and how to administer them.

• Chapter 13, Administering NIS+ Directories, describes NIS+ directory objects and how to administer them.

• Chapter 14, Adminatering NIS+ Tables, describes NIS+ tables and how to administer them. (See Appendix C, Information in NIS+ Tables, for detailed descriptions of the default NIS+ tables.)

• Chapter 15, Server-Use Customization, describes how to customize and control which servers NIS+ clients use.

• Chapter 16, NIS+ Backup and Restore, describes how to backup and restore an NIS+ namespace.

• Chapter 17, Removing NIS+, describes how to use the NIS+ directory administration commands to remove NIS+ from clients, servers, and the namespace as a whole.

Part IV, Administering NIS

• This part describes the Network Information Service (NIS) and how to administer it.

• Chapter 18, Network Information Service (NIS), describes NIS.

• Chapter 19, Administering NIS, describes how to administer NIS.

Part V, Administering FNS

This part describes the Federated Naming Service (FNS) and how to administer it.

• Chapter 20, FNS Quickstart, is for experienced administrators. It provides a brief overview of FNS, basic set up and configuration steps, and a programming example.

• Chapter 21, Federated Naming Overview, describes the Federated Naming Service (FNS) which is Sun's implementation of the X/Open XFN federated naming standard.

• Chapter 22, FNS Policies, describes FNS policies.

• Chapter 23, FNS and Enterprise Name Services, describes the relationship between FNS and enterprise level naming services.

• Chapter 24, Enterprise Level Contexts, describes how to individually create, and administer existing enterprise-level contexts.

• Chapter 25, Adminstering File Contexts, describes how to administer application specific contexts.

• Chapter 26, FNS and Global Naming Systems, describes two global naming systems (DNS and X.500/LDAP) and how to federate them under FNS.

• Chapter 27, Adminstering FNS Attributes, describes FNS attributes and how to administer them.

Part VI, Administering DNS

This part describes the Domain Name System and how to administer it.

• Chapter 28, Introduction to DNS, describes the Domain Name System.

• Chapter 29, Administering DNS, describes how to administer the Domain Name System.

Part VII, Appendices

This part provides reference material and a glossary.

• Appendix A, Problems and Solutions, describes some of the problems you may encounter while administering Solaris namespaces and how to correct them.

• Appendi B, Error Message, provides an alphabetic listing of some commonly encountered error messages.

• Appendix C, Information in NIS+ Tables, summarizes the information stored in the default NIS+ tables. (See Chapter 14, Administering NIS+ Tables, for general information regarding NIS+ tables and the commands used to administer them.)

• Appendix D, FNS Reference Formats and Syntax, contains supplemental information about the use of DNS text (TXT) records and the use of X.500 attributes in XFN references.

• Glossary defines namespace terms.

Related Books

• Solaris Naming Setup and Configuration Guide--Describes how to set up, and configure NIS+ and DNS.

• NIS+ Transition Guide--Describes how to make the transition from NIS to NIS+.

Additional books not part of the Solaris documentation set:

• DNS and Bind, by Cricket Liu and Paul Albitz (O'Reilly, 1992).

• Managing NFS and NIS by Hal Stern, (O'Reilly, 1993).

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.com^SM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com..

What Typographic Conventions Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% you have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	machine_name% su Password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words, or terms, or words to be emphasized.	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P-2 Shell Prompts

Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	machine_name%
C shell superuser prompt	machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	$
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	#