Removal or Disassociation of NIS+ Directory from Replica Fails

When removing or disassociating a directory from a replica server you must first remove the directory's org_dir and groups_dir subdirectories before removing the directory itself. After each subdirectory is removed, you must run nisping on the parent directory of the directory you intend to remove. (See Removing a Directory.)

If you fail to perform the nisping operation, the directory will not be completely removed or disassociated.

If this occurs, you need to perform the following steps to correct the problem:

1. Remove /var/nis/rep/org_dir on the replica.

2. Make sure that org_dir.domain does not appear in /var/nis/rep/serving_list on the replica.

3. Perform a nisping on domain.

4. From the master server, run nisrmdir -f replica_directory.

If the replica server you are trying to dissociate is down or out of communication, the nisrmdir -s command will return a Cannot remove replica name: attempt to remove a non-empty table error message.

In such cases, you can run nisrmdir -f -s replicaname on the master to force the dissociation. Note, however, that if you use nisrmdir -f -s to dissociate an out-of-communication replica, you must run nisrmdir -f -s again as soon as the replica is back on line in order to clean up the replica's /var/nis file system. If you fail to rerun nisrmdir -f -s replicaname when the replica is back in service, the old out-of-date information left on the replica could cause problems.