JavaScript is required to for searching.
Skip Navigation Links
Exit Print View
System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP)     Oracle Solaris 11 Express 11/10
search filter icon
search icon

Document Information

Preface

Part I About Naming and Directory Services

1.  Naming and Directory Services (Overview)

2.  The Name Service Switch (Overview)

Part II DNS Setup and Administration

3.  DNS Setup and Administration (Reference)

Part III NIS Setup and Administration

4.  Network Information Service (NIS) (Overview)

NIS Introduction

NIS Architecture

NIS Machine Types

NIS Servers

NIS Clients

NIS Elements

The NIS Domain

NIS Daemons

NIS Utilities

NIS Maps

Default NIS Maps

Using NIS Maps

NIS Map Nicknames

NIS-Related Commands

NIS Binding

Server-List Mode

Broadcast Mode

5.  Setting Up and Configuring NIS Service

6.  Administering NIS (Tasks)

7.  NIS Troubleshooting

Part IV LDAP Naming Services Setup and Administration

8.  Introduction to LDAP Naming Services (Overview/Reference)

9.  LDAP Basic Components and Concepts (Overview)

10.  Planning Requirements for LDAP Naming Services (Tasks)

11.  Setting Up Sun Java System Directory Server With LDAP Clients (Tasks)

12.  Setting Up LDAP Clients (Tasks)

13.  LDAP Troubleshooting (Reference)

14.  LDAP General Reference (Reference)

15.  Transitioning From NIS to LDAP (Overview/Tasks)

Part V Active Directory Naming Service

16.  Setting Up Oracle Solaris Active Directory Clients

Glossary

Index

NIS Machine Types

There are three types of NIS machines.

Any machine can be an NIS client, but only machines with disks should be NIS servers, either master or slave. Servers are also clients, typically of themselves.

NIS Servers

The NIS server does not have to be the same machine as the NFS file server.

NIS servers come in two varieties, master and slave. The machine designated as master server contains the set of maps that the system administrator creates and updates as necessary. Each NIS domain must have one, and only one, master server, which can propagate NIS updates with the least performance degradation.

You can designate additional NIS servers in the domain as slave servers. A slave server has a complete copy of the master set of NIS maps. Whenever the master server maps are updated, the updates are propagated among the slave servers. Slave servers can handle any overflow of requests from the master server, minimizing “server unavailable” errors.

Normally, the system administrator designates one master server for all NIS maps. However, because each individual NIS map has the machine name of the master server encoded within it, you could designate different servers to act as master and slave servers for different maps. To minimize confusion, designate a single server as the master for all the maps you create within a single domain. The examples in this chapter assume that one server is the master for all maps in the domain.

NIS Clients

NIS clients run processes that request data from maps on the servers. Clients do not make a distinction between master and slave servers, since all NIS servers should have the same information.


Note - The Oracle Solaris operating system does not support a configuration in which a NIS client and a Native LDAP client co-exist on the same client machine.