Whitepaper on NIS Features on HPUX 11i v3

two new maps, namely ipnodes.byaddr and ipnodes.byname. The ipnodes maps contain both
IPv4 and IPv6 data, the hosts maps contain only the IPv4 data, filtered from the /etc/hosts file.
Thus making the ipnodes maps a superset of the host maps. These maps are automatically built
on a HPUX 11iv3 system.
7. Feature 4: Multihomed Host Support
A multihomed host is a host that has multiple interfaces configured. The NIS Server can now
index hosts with multiple entries in the hosts and ipnodes database. While building the maps,
ypmake identifies multiple entries with the same hostname and accommodates the entries in the
maps accordingly with the aid of the multi and multi.awk scripts added in the HPUX 11i v3
release. If a host has multiple entries in the database and the ipnodes map is queried then all
the entries are returned. Similarly, if the hosts maps is queried then the address closest to the
NIS client is returned. On previous versions of HP-UX, only the first address listed for a host
would be built into the maps.
8. Feature 5: Long Username and Long Hostname support
On HPUX 11i v3, the usernames for NIS users can be up to 256 characters long. The hostnames
can be up to 256 characters long for:
(a) the hosts on which NIS is running and
(b) the entries stored and accessed through the hosts and ipnodes maps.
9. Feature 6: Alternate Directory for passwd file
On HPUX 11i v3, users may now specify a directory other than the default /etc where NIS should
look for the passwd file. If the system is running in shadow mode, then the shadow file must be
present in the same alternate directory specified as the passwd file i.e. there is no way of
specifying different passwd and shadow directories.
This feature enhances the security of the system as the administrator can specify a directory for
passwd and shadow files which are known to the administrator only.
Specifying a directory where the passwd and shadow files can be found is mandatory when
starting the NIS passwd daemon rpc.yppasswdd on HPUX 11i v3. The default value is /etc. A
new option –D has been introduced to rpc.yppasswdd for this feature in HPUX 11i v3. It is
mandatory to specify the directory, and so the usage message is displayed when the –D option is
not used. The usage message is as follows:
Usage:
rpc.yppasswdd -D directory | passwd_file
[-l log_file]
[-nopw] [-nogecos] [-nohome]
[-noshell] [-m arg1 arg2 ...]
where
directory is the directory where the passwd, shadow
files are found (/etc by default)
It should match the setting of PWDIR in /var/yp/Makefile
passwd_file is the path to the passwd file