ColorSpan Legacy System Control - User Guide

Unix and VAX Based Computers B-15
DNS and NIS Systems
Domain Name Services (DNS) and Network Information
Services (NIS – Sun Microsystems’ version of DNS, also called
“Yellow Pages”) are distributed database systems that replace
copies of commonly replicated configuration files with a central
management facility. These services prevent users from having
to maintain separate copies of password, group, and host config-
uration files.
To determine if NIS is running on a BSD Unix system, type:
ps -ax | grep ypbind
[Return]
ps -ax | grep ypserv
[Return]
To determine if NIS is running on System V Unix system, type:
ps -al (or ps -c)| grep ypbind
[Return]
ps -al (or ps -c)| grep ypserv
[Return]
On either system, if NIS is not available, you will not see a pro-
cess called ybind or yserv. If NIS is running, add the
printer’s unique IP address and printer name to the /etc/
hosts file on the master NIS server only, then remake the NIS
database.
If you are running DNS, configure the printer name in the DNS
lookup table instead of adding it to your local /etc/hosts
file. Do the same if you are running both DNS and NIS. (NIS is
used only as an interface to DNS. You do not have to change the
local /etc/hosts file.)
Note
Due to the different permutations of Unix, it may be nec-
essary to modify both the master server
/etc/hosts
file and the local
/etc/hosts
file. Normally, adding
the printer information to your local
/etc/hosts
file
in a system running DNS and/or NIS will have no effect,
but this is not always the case.