System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

The /etc/nsswitch.conf File

The /etc/nsswitch.conf file on each system specifies the policy for name service lookups (where data is read from) on that system.


Note –

You must make sure that the name service accessed from the console, which you specify through the console Toolbox Editor, appears in the search path of the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. If the specified name service does not appear there, the tools might behave in unexpected ways, resulting in errors or warnings.


When using the Solaris managements tools in a name service environment, you might impact many users with a single operation. For example, if you delete a user in the NIS name service, that user is deleted on all systems that are using NIS.

If different systems in your network have different /etc/nsswitch.conf configurations, unexpected results might occur. So, all systems to be managed with the Solaris management tools should have a consistent name service configuration.