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

and IPv6 information. Ipnodes are a superset of hosts and act as the host database
for IPv6 information. NIS supports ipnodes using the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
For more information about the /etc/nsswitch.conf file, see nsswitch.conf (4).
• Alternate Directory for the passwd File
On HP-UX 11i v3, users may specify a directory other than the default directory
(/etc), where NIS must look for the passwd file. A new option –D is introduced
to support this feature on the rpc.yppasswdd server. If the system is running in
shadow mode, the shadow file must reside in the same alternate directory as the
passwd file.
This feature enhances the security of the system. The administrator can specify a
directory for the passwd and shadow files, which is known only to the
administrator. For an example on how to specify an alternate directory for the
passwd file, see “Setting up an Alternate Directory for the passwd File” (page 33).
• Long Username, Hostname, and Groupname support
On HP-UX 11i v3, the usernames and groupnames for NIS users can be up to 255
characters long. The domainnames can be up to 64 characters long.
The hostnames can be up to 255 characters long for:
— Hosts on which NIS is running
— Entries stored and accessed through the hosts and ipnodes maps
• Support for NIS ypbind v3 Protocol
The NIS client supports the v3 version of the ypbind protocol. This ypbind
protocol supports the Transport Independent (TI) RPC.
NIS protocol version 1 (NISv1) is deprecated on the NIS client starting with HP-UX
11i v3, and will be removed in a future version of NIS. However, the NIS server,
ypserv, supports NISv1. The ypbind protocol version v1 is obsolete and any
request from the NIS client that specifically requests to use the ypbind protocol
version v1 is rejected.
The NISv1 protocol deprecation impacts an NIS client application that uses the
NISv1 protocol in the following scenarios:
— The NIS client uses the -v1 option of the ypwhich or the ypset command.
— An application directly communicates with the ypbind Remote Procedure
Call (RPC) version 1.
— An application includes the ypv1_prot.h header file.
Features in NIS 21