NIS+ Setup and Configuration Preparation

Before configuring your NIS+ namespace, you must:

• Install properly configured nsswitch.conf files on all the machines that use NIS+. See Chapter 1, Name Service Switch for details.

• Plan your NIS+ layout. Consider the following items when planning the layout.

  • Planning your namespace. What will your domain name be? Will you have subdomains, and if so how will they be organized? Which machines will be in which domain? Will your domain be connected to a higher domain or to the Internet?

  • Determining your server requirements. How many replica servers will be needed for each domain? What type of server, processor speed, and memory is required? How much server disk space is needed?

    See Chapter 2, NIS+: An Introduction for a detailed description of these and other planning issues, and recommended guidelines.

• Prepare your existing namespace (if any). See Preparing the Existing Namespace for NIS+.

• Choose a root server machine.

• Make sure that you have at least one system already running at your site that can be used as your root master server. This machine must contain at least one user (root) in the system information files, such as /etc/passwd. Machines usually come with root in the system files, so this should not be a problem.

NIS and NIS+

Both NIS and NIS+ perform some of the same tasks. NIS+, however, allows for hierarchical domains, namespace security, and other features that NIS does not provide. For a more detailed comparison between NIS and NIS+, see How NIS+ Differs From NIS.

You can use NIS in conjunction with NIS+ under the following principles and conditions:

• Servers within a domain. While you can have both NIS and NIS+ servers operating in the same domain, doing so is not recommended for long periods. As a general rule, using both services in the same domain should be limited to a relatively short transition period from NIS to NIS+. If some clients need NIS service, you can run NIS+ in NIS-compatibility mode as explained in Solaris 1 Release and NIS-Compatibility Mode.

• Subdomains. If the master server of your root domain is running NIS+, you can set up subdomains whose servers are all running NIS. (If your root domain master server is running NIS, you cannot have subdomains.) This might be useful in situations where you are moving from NIS to NIS+. For example, suppose your enterprise had separate, multiple NIS domains, possibly at different sites. Now you need to link them all together into a single, hierarchical multi-domain namespace under NIS+. By first setting up the root domain under NIS+, you can then designate the legacy NIS domains as sub-domains that continue to run NIS until it is convenient to switch them over to NIS+.

• Machines within a domain.

  • If a domain's servers are running NIS+, individual machines within that domain can be set up to use either NIS+, NIS, or /etc files for their name service information. In order for an NIS+ server to supply the needs of an NIS client, the NIS+ server must be running in NIS-compatibility mode as described in Solaris 1 Release and NIS-Compatibility Mode.

  • If a domain's servers are running NIS, individual machines within that domain can be set up to use either NIS or /etc files for name services (they cannot use NIS+).