Differences Between NIS+ Tables and NIS Maps (NIS+ Transition Guide)

NIS+ Transition Guide

Differences Between NIS+ Tables and NIS Maps

NIS+ tables differ from NIS maps in many ways, but two of those differences should be kept in mind during your namespace design:

NIS+ uses fewer standard tables than NIS.

NIS+ tables interoperate with /etc files differently than NIS maps did in the SunOS 4.x releases.

NIS+ Standard Tables

Review the 17 standard NIS+ tables to make sure they suit the needs of your site. They are listed in Table 2-5. Table 2-6 lists the correspondences between NIS maps and NIS+ tables.

Do not worry about synchronizing related tables. The NIS+ tables store essentially the same information as NIS maps, but they consolidate similar information into a single table (for example, the NIS+ hosts table stores the same information as the hosts.byaddr and hosts.byname NIS maps). Instead of the key-value pairs used in NIS maps, NIS+ tables use columns and rows. (See Solaris Naming Setup and Configuration Guide.) Key-value tables have two columns, with the first column being the key and the second column being the value. Therefore, when you update any information, such as host information, you need only update it in one place, such as the hosts table. You no longer have to worry about keeping that information consistent across related maps.

Note the new names of the automounter tables:

auto_home (old name: auto.home)
auto_master (old name: auto.master)

The dots were changed to underscores because NIS+ uses dots to separate directories. Dots in a table name can cause NIS+ to mistranslate names. For the same reason, machine names cannot contain any dots. You must change any machine name that contains a dot to something else. For example, a machine named sales.alpha is not allowed. You could change it to sales_alpha or salesalpha or any other name that does not contain a dot.

To make the transition from NIS to NIS+, you must change the dots in your NIS automounter maps to underscores. You may also need to do this on your clients' automounter configuration files. See Table 2-5.

Table 2-5 NIS+ Tables


NIS+ Table	Information in the Table
`hosts`	Network address and host name of every workstation in the domain
`bootparams`	Location of the root, swap, and dump partition of every diskless client in the domain
`passwd`	Password information about every user in the domain
`cred`	Credentials for principals who belong to the domain
`group`	The group password, group ID, and members of every UNIX® group in the domain
`netgroup`	The netgroups to which workstations and users in the domain may belong
`mail_aliases`	Information about the mail aliases of users in the domain
`timezone`	The time zone of the domain
`networks`	The networks in the domain and their canonical names
`netmasks`	The networks in the domain and their associated netmasks
`ethers`	The ethernet address of every workstation in the domain
`services`	The names of IP services used in the domain and their port numbers
`protocols`	The list of IP protocols used in the domain
`rpc`	The RPC program numbers for RPC services available in the domain
`auto_home`	The location of all user's home directories in the domain
`auto_master`	Automounter map information
`sendmailvars`	Stores the mail domain

Table 2-6 Correspondences Between NIS Maps and NIS+ Tables


NIS Map	NIS+ Table	Notes
`auto.home`	`auto_home`
`auto.master`	`auto_master`
`bootparams`	`bootparams`
`ethers.byaddr`	`ethers`
`ethers.byname`	`ethers`
`group.bygid`	`group`	Not the same as NIS+ groups
`group.byname`	`group`	Not the same as NIS+ groups
`hosts.byaddr`	`hosts`
`hosts.byname`	`hosts`
`mail.aliases`	`mail_aliases`
`mail.byaddr`	`mail_aliases`
`netgroup`	`netgroup`
`netgroup.byhost`	`netgroup`
`netgroup.byuser`	`netgroup`
`netid.byname`	`cred`
`netmasks.byaddr`	`netmasks`
`networks.byaddr`	`networks`
`networks.byname`	`networks`
`passwd.byname`	`passwd`
`passwd.byuid`	`passwd`
`protocols.byname`	`protocols`
`protocols.bynumber`	`protocols`
`publickey.byname`	`cred`
`rpc.bynumber`	`rpc`
`services.byname`	`services`
`ypservers`		Not needed

NIS+ has one new table for which there is no corresponding NIS table: sendmailvars. The sendmailvars table stores the mail domain used by sendmail.

NIS+ Tables Interoperate Differently With `/etc` Files

The manner in which NIS and other network information services interacted with /etc files in the SunOS 4.x environment was controlled by the /etc files using the +/- syntax. How NIS+, NIS, DNS and other network information services interact with /etc files in the Solaris operating environment is determined by the name service switch. The switch is a configuration file, /etc/nsswitch.conf, located on every Solaris operating environment client. It specifies the sources of information for that client: /etc files, DNS zone files (hosts only), NIS maps, or NIS+ tables. The nsswitch.conf configuration file of NIS+ clients resembles the simplified version in Example 2-1.

Example 2-1 Simplified Name Service Switch File

passwd: files

group: compat

group_compat: nisplus

hosts: nisplus dns [NOTFOUND=return] files

services: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

networks: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

protocols: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

rpc: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

ethers: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

netmasks: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

bootparams: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

publickey: nisplus

netgroup: nisplus

automount: files nisplus

aliases: files nisplus

In other words, for most types of information, the source is first an NIS+ table, then an /etc file. For the passwd and group entries, the sources can either be network files or from /etc files and NIS+ tables as indicated by +/- entries in the files.

You can select from three versions of the switch-configuration file or you can create your own. For instructions, see Solaris Naming Administration Guide.