The NIS client service provides information about hosts,
user passwords, user groups and netgroups on a network.
In NIS terminology, each of the above is referred to as
the map and the specific information being looked up is
called the key. For example, the hosts map is like the
/etc/hosts file; it provides a translation from host names
to IP addresses. The NIS service typically has two parts:
a client component which requests information and a name
server which provides it.
Data ONTAP supports only the NIS client. When the filer
needs to resolve a key in a given map, it looks at the
/etc/nsswitch.conf (see na_nsswitch.conf(5)) file to figure
out the order in which the various databases should be
consulted. For example, in case of the hosts map the
lookup order may be file,nis,dns. This means that the
filer will first consult the /etc/hosts file. If the host
name is not found in the local file, it will then try the
NIS service. If the host name is still not found, then it
will attempt a DNS lookup.
The NIS client can be enabled on the filer by running the
setup command (see na_setup(1)) or by manually editing the
configuration files as described below. If NIS is enabled
by running the setup command, then the NIS domain name
needs to be entered.
EnablingNISwithoutthesetupcommand:
1. Edit the /etc/rc file (see na_rc(5)) to make
sure that the option specifying the NIS domain name
is set and the option to enable NIS is on. For
example:
options nis.domainname mycompany.com
options nis.enable on
2. Reboot the filer for these changes to take
effect. If the above options commands are also
entered from the console, the reboot can be
avoided. If the options are entered via the console
only, they are not saved across a reboot.
EnablingNISwiththesetupcommand:
At setup time, one can choose to enable NIS when
prompted to do so. setup then queries for the NIS
domain name.
