NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NIS
Planning the NIS Network
Chapter 4152
To Determine the Number of NIS Servers You Need
Following are some guidelines for determining the number of NIS
servers you will need in your domain:
• When a client starts up, it broadcasts a message to find the nearest
server and binds to it. If you want the client to bind through
broadcast method, at least one server must be present in each
subnetwork in a domain. However, by using the ypinit command
with the -c option, you can specify a list of servers to which the NIS
client can bind.
NOTE To use the -c option of the ypinit command, you must install
PHNE_24910 or later.
• In general, a server can serve about 30 NIS clients if the clients and
servers run at the same speed. If the clients are faster than the
servers, you will need more servers. If the clients are slower than the
servers, each server can serve 50 or more clients.
To Determine Which Hosts Will Be NIS Servers
• Choose servers that are reliable and highly available.
• Choose fast servers that are not used for CPU-intensive applications.
Do not use gateways or terminal servers as NIS servers.
• Distribute servers appropriately among client networks. Because an
NIS client can bind only to a server on its own subnet, each subnet
must have enough servers to accommodate the clients on that
subnet.