man pages section 1M: System Administration Commands

rpc.nisd(1M)

NAME

rpc.nisd, nisd– NIS+ service daemon

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/rpc.nisd

-ACDFhluv

-Y

-B

-t

netid

-d

dictionary

-L

load

-S

level

DESCRIPTION

The rpc.nisd daemon is an RPC service that implements the NIS+ service. This daemon must be running on all machines which serve a portion of the NIS+ namespace. A Trusted Solaris system must be the root master in the NIS+ configuration.

rpc.nisd is usually started from a system startup script. It must be started through a role that has a UID of 0 and run with a sensitivity label of ADMIN_LOW. (For example, the role might be assigned the predefined NIS+ security administration and NIS+ administration profiles.) rpc.nisd must be run from the Trusted Path and inherit the net_mac_read, net_upgrade_sl, and proc_setsl privileges.

The -B option causes rpc.nisd to start an auxiliary process, rpc.nisd_resolv, which provides ypserv compatible DNS forwarding for NIS host requests. rpc.nisd_resolv can also be started independently. See rpc.nisd_resolv(1M) for more information on using rpc.nisd_resolv independently.

OPTIONS

-A: Authentication verbose mode. The daemon logs all the authentication related activities to syslogd(1M) with LOG_INFO priority.
-C: Open diagnostic channel on /dev/console.
-D: Debug mode (don't fork).
-F: Force the server to do a checkpoint of the database when it starts up. Forced checkpoints may be required when the server is low on disk space. This option removes updates from the transaction log that have propagated to all of the replicas.
-h: Print list of options.
-u: Allow updates from non-Trusted Solaris TCB clients.
-v: Verbose. With this option, the daemon sends a running narration of what it is doing to the syslog daemon (see syslogd(1M)) at LOG_INFO priority. This option is most useful for debugging problems with the service (see also -A option).
-Y: Put the server into NIS (YP) compatibility mode. When operating in this mode, the NIS+ server will respond to NIS Version 2 requests using the version 2 protocol. Because the YP protocol is not authenticated, only those items that have read access to nobody (the unauthenticated request) will be visible through the V2 protocol. It supports only the standard Version 2 maps in this mode (see -B option and NOTES in ypfiles(4)).
-B: Provide ypserv compatible DNS forwarding for NIS host requests. The DNS resolving process, rpc.nisd_resolv, is started and controlled by rpc.nisd. This option requires that the /etc/resolv.conf file be setup for communication with a DNS nameserver. The nslookup utility can be used to verify communication with a DNS nameserver. See resolv.conf(4) and nslookup(1M).

-t netid

Use netid as the transport for communication between rpc.nisd and rpc.nisd_resolv. The default transport is ticots(7D) (tcp on SunOS 4.x systems).

-d dictionary

Specify an alternate dictionary for the NIS+ database. The primary use of this option is for testing. Note that the string is not interpreted, rather it is simply passed to the db_initialize() function.

-L number

Specify the ``load'' the NIS+ service is allowed to place on the server. The load is specified in terms of the number of child processes that the server may spawn. This number must be at least 1 for the callback functions to work correctly. The default is 128.

-S level

Set the authorization security level of the service. The argument is a number between 0 and 2. By default, the daemon runs at security level 2.

0: Security level 0 is designed to be used for testing and initial setup of the NIS+ namespace. When running at level 0, the daemon does not enforce any access controls. Any client is allowed to perform any operation, including updates and deletions.
1: At security level 1, the daemon accepts both AUTH_SYS and AUTH_DES credentials for authenticating clients and authorizing them to perform NIS+ operations. This is not a secure mode of operation since AUTH_SYS credentials are easily forged. It should not be used on networks in which any untrusted users may potentially have access.
2: At security level 2, the daemon only accepts authentication using the security mechanisms configured by nisauthconf(1M). The default security mechanism is AUTH_DES. Security level 2 is the default if the -S option is not used.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 Setting up the NIS+ service.

The following example sets up the NIS+ service.

example% rpc.nisd

Example 2 Setting Up NIS+ Service Emulating YP With DNS Forwarding

The following example sets up the NIS+ service, emulating YP with DNS forwarding.

example% rpc.nisd -YB

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

NETPATH: The transports that the NIS+ service will use can be limited by setting this environment variable (see netconfig(4)).

FILES

/var/nis/data/parent.object: This file describes the namespace that is logically above the NIS+ namespace. The most common type of parent object is a DNS object. This object contains contact information for a server of that domain.
/var/nis/data/root.object: This file describes the root object of the NIS+ namespace. It is a standard XDR-encoded NIS+ directory object that can be modified by authorized clients using the nis_modify(3NSL) interface.
/etc/init.d/rpc: Initialization script for NIS+.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWnisu

SUMMARY OF TRUSTED SOLARIS CHANGES

A Trusted Solaris system must be the root master of the NIS+ configuration. The Trusted Solaris environment adds the -u. rpc.nisd must be run from the Trusted Path and inherit the net_mac_read, net_upgrade_sl, and proc_setsl. The daemon must be started by a role with a UID of 0 and run with a sensitivity label of ADMIN_LOW.

Trusted Solaris 8 HW 12/02 Reference Manual

nis_cachemgr(1M), nissetup(1M), nslookup(1M), rpc.nisd_resolv(1M), rpc.nispasswdd(1M), nis_modify(3NSL), resolv.conf(4)

SunOS 5.8 Reference Manual

nisauthconf(1M), nisinit(1M), syslogd(1M), netconfig(4), nisfiles(4), attributes(5), ticots(7D)

SunOS 5.8 Last Revised 25 Aug 2000