Network Information Service (NIS) B.11.31.02 Administrator's Guide

A Sample NIS Network
Figure 1-1 represents a typical NIS network consisting of the NIS master, the NIS slave server,
and clients.
Figure 1-1 Illustration of a Sample NIS Network
The host name of the NIS master is mammoth and the host name of the slave server is ocelot.
Both the master and the slave servers reside in the marketing domain. The client systems
Client 1, Client 2, Client 3, Client 4, and Client 5 connect to the master and slave
servers to obtain NIS configuration information over the 20.21.12.0 network. The entries in
the /etc/rc.config.d/namesvrs file on both the master and slave servers are shown in
Figure 1-1. The daemons that run on the NIS master server are rpcbind, ypserv, ypxfrd,
rpc.yppasswdd, rpc.ypupdated, keyserv, and ypbind. The daemons that run on the NIS
slave server are rpcbind, ypserv, ypxfrd, keyserv, and ypbind. Only the ypbind daemon
runs on the client because the client uses only the ypbind daemon to bind to the NIS master
server.
NIS Naming Service Components
The NIS naming service consists of the following components:
• NIS Maps
• NIS Domains
• NIS Daemons
• NIS Commands
• Default NIS Source Files
NIS Maps
NIS maps are databases that specify certain system information, such as user names, passwords,
and host names, in a database format called dbm. The NIS maps are located in the
/var/yp/domainname/ directory on the NIS server. A list of all the default NIS maps is available
in the /etc/rc.config.d/namesvrs file.
12 Introduction