Migrating From NIS to LDAP

Moving from NIS to LDAP is a two-step process that involves data migration and client migration. The Solaris OS provides the NIS-to-LDAP transition service (N2L service), which accomplishes both steps.

The N2L service replaces existing NIS daemons on the NIS master server with NIS-to-LDAP transition daemons. The N2L service also creates an NIS-to-LDAP mapping file on that server. The mapping file specifies the mapping between NIS map entries and equivalent Directory Information Tree (DIT) entries in LDAP. An NIS master server that has gone through this transition is referred to as an N2L server.

The NIS slave servers continue to function in the usual manner. The slave servers periodically update their data from the N2L server as if the N2L server were a regular NIS master. A script, inityp2l, assists with the initial setup of these configuration files. When the N2L server has been established, you can maintain N2L by directly editing the configuration files.

The N2L service supports the following:

• Import of NIS maps into the LDAP DIT

• Client access to DIT information with the speed and extensibility of NIS

For details on how to migrate from NIS to LDAP, see Chapter 15, Transitioning From NIS to LDAP (Overview/Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).