Preface

Solaris Naming Setup and Configuration Guide describes how to set up and configure the four Solaris^TM name services: NIS+, NIS, FNS, and DNS. This manual is part of the Solaris 2.6 release System and Network Administration manual set.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is for system and network administrators who want to set up one or more of the four Solaris name services. It assumes you are an experienced system administrator.

Although this book introduces networking concepts relevant to Solaris name services, it makes no attempt to explain networking fundamentals or describe the administration tools offered by the Solaris environment. If you administer networks, this manual assumes you already know how they work and have already chosen your favorite tools.

Solaris Naming Administration Guide contains a thorough description of the Solaris name services, a glossary of name service terms, and a listing of common error messages.

How This Book Is Organized

This book has five parts:

Part 1, Naming Service Setup

This part describes how to use the nsswitch.conffile to specify how different name services work together.

• Chapter 1, Setting Up the Name Service Switch describes the name service switch and provides step-by-step instructions for configuring it.

Part 2, NIS+ Setup and Configuration

This part describes how to set up and configure an NIS+ namespace. The first chapter gives an introduction to NIS+. The second and third chapters describe how to set up an NIS+ namespace using the NIS+ setup scripts. The setup scripts are the preferred method for NIS+ setup and configuration. The last five chapters describe how to set up and configure an NIS+ namespace using the NIS+ command set.

• Chapter 2, Getting Started With NIS+ provides a brief overview of Network Information Service Plus (NIS+), lists the tasks you need to perform before setting up NIS+, identifies the minimum requirements of an NIS+ namespace, and describes the two methods of NIS+ setup.

• Chapter 3, NIS+ Setup Scripts--Introduction describes the NIS+ scripts and what they can and cannot do.

• Chapter 4, Configuring NIS+ With Scripts describes how to configure a basic NIS+ namespace using the nisserver, nispopulate, and nisclient scripts in combination with a few NIS+ commands.

• Chapter 5, Setting Up the Root Domain provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the root domain and DES authentication using the NIS+ command set.

• Chapter 6, Configuring NIS+ Clients provides step-by-step instructions for setting up NIS+ clients using the NIS+ command set and three different initialization methods. These instructions apply to clients in both the root domain and subdomains, whether all-NIS+ or NIS-compatible.

• Chapter 7, Configuring NIS+ Servers provides step-by-step procedures for using the NIS+ command set to set up NIS+ servers (except the root master) and add replica servers to existing NIS+ domains.

• Chapter 8, Configuring a Non-root Domain provides step-by-step instructions for using the NIS+ command set to configure a subdomain domain (also known as a nonroot domain) including designating its master and replica servers.

• Chapter 9, Setting Up NIS+ Tables provides step-by-step instructions for using the NIS+ command set to populate NIS+ tables on a master server from /etc files or NIS maps, how to transfer information back from NIS+ tables to NIS maps, how to limit access to the passwd column of the passwd table.

Part 3, NIS Setup and Configuration

Chapter 10, Configuring NIS Service describes initial set up and configuration of the Network Information Service (NIS).

Part 4, FNS Setup and Configuration

Chapter 11, FNS Setup and Configuration describes how to initially set up and configure the Federated Naming Service (FNS) in an NIS+, NIS, or /etc namespace environment.

Part 5, DNS Setup and Configuration

This part describes how to set up DNS clients and servers.

• Chapter 12, Setting Up DNS Clients describes how to set up DNS service on client machines.

• Chapter 13, Setting Up DNS Servers describes how to set up a DNS name server.

Related Books

You can consult the following for more information on NIS+ and DNS. These books are also part of the Solaris 2.6 release System and Network Administration manual set:

• Solaris Naming Administration Guide--describes how to customize and administer an existing NIS+ namespace.

• NIS+ Transition Guide--Describes how to make the transition from NIS to NIS+.

Additional books not part of the Solaris 2.6 release manual set:

• DNS and Bind by Cricket Liu and Paul Albitz (O'Reilly, 1992).

• Managing NFS and NIS by Hal Stern (O'Reilly 1991).

Ordering Sun Documents

The SunDocs^TM program provides more than 250 manuals from Sun Microsystems^TM, Inc. If you live in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Japan, you can purchase documentation sets or individual manuals using this program.

For a list of documents and how to order them, see the catalog section of SunExpress^TM on the Internet at http://www.sun.com/sunexpress.

What Typographic Changes Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

machine_name% su

Password:

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.