HP-UX Internet Services Administrator's Guide (August 2003)
Installing and Configuring Internet Services
Configuring the Internet Services Software
Chapter 2 27
NOTE HP recommends that you do not configure your system to use both NIS
and NIS+.
For host information, you can configure your system to use BIND (DNS),
NIS, NIS+, or the /etc/hosts file.
The default name service switch configuration is adequate for most
installations, so you probably do not have to change it. The default
configuration is explained in the section “Default Configuration” on
page 28.
Also, for more information about the name service switch configuration
files supplied in the /etc directory, including the syntax of the
configuration file and customizing your configuration, see Installing and
Administering NFS Services, available at the URL
http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/netcom/index.html, or type man 4
nsswitch.conf at the HP-UX prompt.
Hostname Fallback
The ability to consult more than one name service for host information is
often called hostname fallback. The name service switch provides
client-side hostname fallback, because it is incorporated into
client-side programs (for example, gethostbyname), which request host
information.
The Network Information Service (NIS), one of the NFS services, allows
you to configure a server-side hostname fallback. This feature causes
the NIS or NIS+ server to query BIND when it fails to find requested
host information in its database. The NIS or NIS+ server then returns
the host information to the client through NIS or NIS+. This server-side
hostname fallback is intended for use with clients such as PCs, which do
not have the name service switch feature. HP recommends that you use
the name service switch if possible, instead of the server-side hostname
fallback provided by NIS and NIS+. For more information about the NIS
server-side hostname fallback, see Installing and Administering NFS
Services, at the URL
http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/netcom/index.html.