Name Services on the Netra Server

The Netra server provides three types of name services:

• Local name service (host only) - Translation is done locally (by looking up the name in a file)

• Network Information Service (NIS - LAN, WAN) - Translation is done by a NIS server (running either on the Netra server or on another host)

• Domain Name System (DNS - whole internet) - Translation is provided by a DNS server (running either on the Netra server or on another host).

The Netra server can use any or all of the name services at the same time. If you decide to use more than one name service, the default order configured by Netra j is NIS, local, DNS.

For example, suppose your Netra server is configured to use the local name service and DNS. When a name service query is made, the server attempts name resolution by looking up the host name in the local database first. If the host name is found, the server returns the host address. If not, the query is passed to a DNS server. If the DNS server resolves the query, it returns the information.

Correct Hosts Policy for /etc/nsswitch.conf

The name service configuration file, /etc/nsswitch.conf, should not be configured to only search the NIS database for host information. The search should include a files option to search in the local files.

For example, the name service ignores information in the local host if the /etc/nsswitch.conf file contains the following entry:

hosts: nis [NOTFOUND=return] dns

For the Netra j server and the NC clients to work correctly, change the /etc/nsswitch.conf file to include one of the following entries:

files nis [NOTFOUND=return] dns

or

nis files dns