The nsswitch.conf File
The default nsswitch.conf file that is installed when you install the Solaris operating environment for the first time is determined by which naming service you select during the Solaris software installation process. Each line of that file identifies a particular type of network information, such as host, password, and group, followed by one or more sources, such as NIS+ tables, NIS maps, the DNS hosts table, or local /etc, where the client is to look for that information. When you chose a naming service, the switch template file for that service is copied to create the new nsswitch.conf file. For example, if you choose NIS+, the nsswitch.nisplus file is copied to create a new nsswitch.conf file.
An /etc/nsswitch.conf file is automatically loaded into every machine's /etc directory by the Solaris 9release software, along with the following alternate (template) versions.
These alternate template files contain the default switch configurations used by the NIS+ and NIS services, local files, and LDAP. No default file is provided for DNS, but you can edit any of these files to use DNS. See Chapter 5, DNS Administration (Reference). When the Solaris operating environment is first installed on a machine, the installer selects the machine's default naming service: NIS+, NIS, local files, or LDAP. During installation, the corresponding template file is copied to /etc/nsswitch.conf. For example, for a machine client using NIS+, the installation process copies nsswitch.nisplus to nsswitch.conf.
If your network is connected to the Internet and you want users to be able to access Internet hosts using DNS, you must enable DNS forwarding.
Unless you have an unusual namespace, the default template file as copied to nsswitch.confshould be sufficient for normal operation.
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