Solaris Naming Administration Guide

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 Servicesprovide's 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. You use the name service switch to coordinate the use of different naming services. This chapter 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 9, Administering NIS+ Access Rights describes NIS+ access rights and how to administer them.
Chapter 10, 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 11, Administering NIS+ Groups describes NIS+ groups and how to administer them.
Chapter 12, Administering NIS+ Directories describes NIS+ directory objects and how to administer them.
Chapter 13, Administering 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 14, Server-Use Customization describes how to customize and control which servers NIS+ clients use.
Chapter 15, NIS+ Backup and Restore describes how to backup and restore an NIS+ namespace.
Chapter 16, 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 17, Network Information Service (NIS) describes NIS.
Chapter 18, 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 19, FNS Quickstart is for experienced administrators. It provides a brief overview of FNS, basic set up and configuration steps, and a programming example.
Chapter 20, Federated Naming Overview describes the Federated Naming Service (FNS) which is Sun's implementation of the X/Open XFN federated naming standard.
Chapter 21, FNS Policies describes FNS policies.
Chapter 22, FNS and Enterprise Name Services describes the relationship between FNS and enterprise level naming services.
Chapter 23, Enterprise Level Contexts describes how to individually create, and administer existing enterprise-level contexts.
Chapter 24, Administering File Contexts describes how to administer application specific contexts.
Chapter 25, FNS and Global Naming Systems describes two global naming systems (DNS and X.500/LDAP) and how to federate them under FNS.
Chapter 26, Administering 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 27, Introduction to DNS describes the Domain Name System.
Chapter 28, 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.
Appendix B, Error Messages 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 13, 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

The SunDocs^SM program provides more than 250 manuals form Sun Microsystems, Inc. If you live in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Japan, you can purchase documentation sets or individual manuals using this program.

For a list of documents and how to order them, see the catalog section of SunExpress(TM) on The Internet at http://www.sun.com/sunexpress.

What Typographic Changes 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	`#`