System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (NIS+)

NIS+ Files and Directories

Table 2–3 lists the UNIX directories used to store NIS+ files.

Table 2–3 Where NIS+ Files Are Stored

Directory 

Where 

Contains 

/usr/bin

All machines 

NIS+ user commands 

/usr/lib/nis

All machines 

NIS+ administrator commands 

/usr/sbin

All machines 

NIS+ daemons 

/usr/lib/

All machines 

NIS+ shared libraries 

/var/nis/data

NIS+ server 

Data files used by NIS+ server 

/var/nis

NIS+ server 

NIS+ working files 

/var/nis

NIS+ client machines 

Machine-specific data files used by NIS+ 


Caution – Caution –

Do not rename the /var/nis or /var/nis/data directories or any of the files in these directories that were created by nisinit or any of the other NIS+ setup procedures. In the Solaris 2 release, the /var/nis directory contained two files named hostname.dict and hostname.log. It also contained a subdirectory named /var/nis/hostname.

Starting with the Solaris 2.5 release, the two files were named trans.log and data.dict, and the subdirectory was named /var/nis/data. The content of the files was also changed, so these files are not backward compatible with earlier releases. Thus, if you rename either the directories or the files to match the Solaris 2.4 patterns, the files will not work with either the Solaris 2.4 release or the current version of the rpc.nisd daemon. Therefore, do not rename either the directories or the files.



Note –

With the Solaris platform, the NIS+ data dictionary (/var/nis/data.dict) is now machine independent. This allows you to easily change the name of an NIS+ server. You can also now use the NIS+ backup and restore capabilities to transfer NIS+ data from one server to another. See Chapter 21, NIS+ Backup and Restore.