Removal or Dissociation 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 an NIS+ 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 -sagain 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 If you fail to rerun nisrmdir -f -s replicaname when the replica is back in service, the old out-of-date information left on the replica could cause problems.