Network Information Service (NIS) B.11.31.04 Administrator's Guide

Table 1-3 NIS Source Files (continued)
DescriptionNIS Source File
A list of group names, along with encrypted password and
numerical group ID. See group (4).
/etc/group
A file that associates network services with the port numbers and
protocols, which the services use. See services (4).
/etc/services
A file that associates network protocols with protocol numbers.
See protocols (4).
/etc/protocols
A file that associates IP addresses with official network names and
aliases. See networks (4).
/etc/networks
A list of Sendmail aliases. See aliases (5).
/etc/mail/aliases
A list of secure remote procedure call (RPC) netnames
(unix.UID@domainname or unix.hostname@domainname)
for users and hosts outside the NIS domain.
/etc/netid
When you configure the NIS master server, the information in the NIS source files is
automatically stored in the NIS database. Other user-defined files can also be used with
the NIS master server to customize configuration.
NIS Binding
In the NIS domain, binding is a process of associating a server with a particular client
.
The ypbind daemon stores information that allows the client processes on the system
to communicate with the ypserv process. The ypbind daemon must run on every
machine, which is using NIS services, specifically NIS clients. If an NIS server is
configured as a client, the ypbind daemon must run on that NIS server. The ypserv
daemon may or may not be running on an NIS client machine, but it must be running
somewhere on the network or be available through a gateway.
The ypinit command allows you to specify a list of servers (in order of preference)
to which the client can bind. Invoking the ypinit command with the -c option prompts
you to construct a list of NIS servers, in order of preference, to which the client will try
to bind. If the client binds to the NIS server and the NIS server becomes unavailable,
the client automatically binds to the next NIS server in the list. The list of NIS servers
is stored in the /var/yp/binding/<domainname>/ypservers file.
Information Flow in an NIS Network
Figure 1-2 illustrates the flow of information in an NIS network with a single domain.
16 Introduction