NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NIS+
Planning the NIS+ Namespace
Chapter 5 211
Planning the NIS+ Namespace
This section explains how to plan your NIS+ namespace. It tells you how
to perform the following tasks:
• To Determine the Number of NIS+ Domains You Need
• To Determine the Number of NIS+ Servers You Need
• To Determine Which Hosts Will Be NIS+ Servers
To Determine the Number of NIS+ Domains You Need
For many sites, all hosts can belong to the same domain, and it is not
necessary to set up a hierarchical namespace with multiple domains.
However, you might want to create multiple domains for the following
reasons:
• NIS+ works most efficiently when each domain contains fewer than
10,000 table entries. 10,000 table entries translates roughly into
about 1000 users. Therefore, you should create enough domains so
that no domain contains more than 1000 users.
• If your site is divided into multiple administrative departments, with
a different system administrator for each department, you should
allow each system administrator to maintain a separate NIS+
domain.
• If your site is divided into multiple administrative departments, and
each department requires different configuration data and allows
access to different users and hosts, you should create a separate
NIS+ domain for each administrative department.