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

NIS+ Files and Directories

Table 2–3 lists the UNIX^TM 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 –

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 Solaris Release 2.4 and earlier versions, the /var/nis directory contained two files named hostname.dict and hostname.log. It also contained a subdirectory named /var/nis/hostname. Starting with Solaris Release 2.5, 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 and they are not backward compatible with Solaris Release 2.4 or earlier. Thus, if you rename either the directories or the files to match the Solaris Release 2.4 patterns, the files will not work with either the Solaris 2.4 Release or the current version of rpc.nisd. Therefore, you should not rename either the directories or the files.

Note –

With the Solaris operating environment, 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.