Preface

Name Services Administration Guide describes how to administer an existing NIS+ (Network Information Service Plus) and DNS (Domain Name Service) namespace. (You can also use it to initially set up a namespace using the NIS+ command set, although the recommended installation and setup method is to use the scripts as described in Name Services Configuration Guide.)

This manual is part of the Solaris^(TM) 2.x System and Network Administration manual set.

Related Books

• NIS+ Transition Guide, describes how to make the transition from NIS to NIS+.
• Name Services Configuration Guide, gives an overview description of the NIS+ namespace, and describes how to install, set up, and configure NIS+ and DNS using the NIS+ installation and setup scripts and commands.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is written primarily for system and network administrators, but MIS managers can use it to evaluate NIS+.

How This Book Is Organized

This manual is organized into two parts:

• Setting Up NIS+ Components
• Administering NIS+

Part 1-- Setting Up NIS+ Components

Part 1 provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the various components of an NIS+ namespace, from the root domain itself to individual clients. (If you are installing an entire NIS+ namespace from scratch, it is recommend that you use the installation and set up scripts described in Name Services Configuration Guide.)

Once you have an operational NIS+ namespace, you can add or change your namespace components as described in these chapters.

Chapter 1, "Setting Up the Root Domain", provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the root domain, including using the NIS-compatibility mode.

Chapter 2, "Setting Up NIS+ Clients", provides step-by-step instructions for setting up an NIS+ client and includes three different initialization methods. These instructions apply to clients in both the root domain and subdomains, whether all-NIS+ or NIS-compatible.

Chapter 3, "Setting Up NIS+ Servers", provides step-by-step instructions for setting up any kind of NIS+ server except the root master.

Chapter 4, "Setting Up a Non-Root Domain", provides step-by-step instructions for creating and setting up a subdomain, including designating its master and replica servers.

Chapter 5, "Setting Up NIS+ Tables", provides step-by-step instructions for populating NIS+ tables with information from input files or NIS maps.

Chapter 6, "Setting Up the Name Service Switch", provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the name service switch to be used with NIS, NIS+, or DNS, as well as to provide backward compatibility with the +/- syntax.

Part 2 -- Administering NIS+

Part 2 covers the administration of a functioning NIS+ namespace.

Chapter 7, "Administering NIS+ Security", describes the NIS+ security system, how it affects the entire NIS+ namespace, and how to administer NIS+ security.

Chapter 8, "Administering NIS+ Credentials", describes how to use the commands that administer NIS+ credentials, nisaddcred and nispasswd; and other commands related to credential administration, nisupdkeys and keylogin.

Chapter 9, "Administering NIS+ Access Rights", describes how to use the commands that administer access rights to NIS+ objects and entries, such as nisaddcred, nischmod, nischown, nischgrp, and the -c and -a options of nistbladm.

Chapter 10, "Administering NIS+ Groups", describes how to use the nisgrpadm command to perform a variety of group administration tasks, from creating an NIS+ group to testing for membership in one.

Chapter 11, "Administering NIS+ Directories", describes how to use the commands that administer NIS+ directories, nismkdir and nisrmdir; the related commands nisls, nis_cachemgr, nisshowcache, and nischttl; and the utilities rpc.nisd and nisinit.

Chapter 12, "Administering NIS+ Tables", describes how to use the commands that administer NIS+ tables and the information in them, nistbladm, niscat, nismatch, nisgrep, nisln, nisping, and nisaddent, including the nissetup utility.

Chapter 13, "Problems and Solutions", describes various types of problems that an NIS+ administrator may encounter and how to solve those problems.

Appendices

The appendices provide useful reference material:

Appendix A, "Error Messages", provides an alphabetic listing of the most commonly encountered error messages.

Appendix B, "Information in NIS+ Tables", summarizes the contents of the standard NIS+ tables.

What Typographic Changes and Symbols Mean

The following table describes the type changes and symbols used in this book:.

Table P-1

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. system% You have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	system% su Password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.
Code samples are included in boxes and may display the following:
%	UNIX(TM) C shell prompt	system%
$	UNIX Bourne and Korn shell prompt	system$
#	Superuser prompt, all shells	system#