NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering NIS+
Planning the NIS+ Namespace
Chapter 5212
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:
• You must configure one master server per NIS+ domain.
• Configure at least one replica server per NIS+ domain, but no more
than 10 replica servers per domain.
• A server may serve more than one domain, but it is not
recommended.
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. Do not use
NFS or database servers as NIS+ servers.
• Choose servers with sufficient disk space. NIS+ data is stored in
/var/nis. The /var/nis directory requires approximately 5 Kbytes
of disk space per client of the domain. For example, if a domain has
1000 clients, /var/nis requires about 5 Mbytes of disk space. You
should add an additional 10-15 Mbytes to allow transaction logs to
grow. So, for a server in a domain of 1000 clients, you should allocate
15-20 Mbytes of disk space.
• Choose servers with sufficient memory. The minimum amount of
memory required for an NIS+ server is 64 Mbytes, but servers of
medium and large domains should have at least 128 Mbytes.