Network Information Service (NIS)

The Network Information Service (NIS) provides a simple network lookup service consisting of databases and processes.

Summary of Change

What’s New for Customers Migrating from HP-UX 11i v1 September 2005?

Provides support for shadow mode if SHADOW_MODE, a new variable in the namesvrs file, is enabled.
Provides support for enabling DNS forwarding mode using an option to the NIS server daemon ypserv.
Provides support for long uname, long hostname, and long username.
Provides new options in the ypserv, yppasswdd, makedbm, and ypmake commands.
Provides support for multihomed node.
Provides IPv6 data support.
Removal of NIS+ and DNS related variables and DNS entries from the namesvrs file. The namesvrs file now contains information related to NIS.
Provides support for ipnodes through the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

What’s New for Customers Migrating from HP-UX 11i v2 June 2006?

See “What’s New for Customers Migrating from HP-UX 11i v1 September 2005?”

Impact

This release of NIS provides new and improved features.

Compatibility

On previous versions the default host nickname used by the commands ypcat and ypwhich is hosts.byaddr while other commands use hosts.byname. In HP-UX 11i v3, the default map used by ypcat and ypwhich is now changed to hosts.byname, for consistency. This change in the default host nickname for ypcat and ypwhich results in a change in display. The usage message displayed is different when you use the -x option with the ypcat and ypwhich commands.

With HP-UX 11i v3, if the rpc.yppasswdd daemon is started without the -D option, the following usage message is displayed:

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 
 
NOTES: 
1. The -D option and the passwd arguments are 
    mutually exclusive 
2. A shadow file found in the same directory as the passwd 
    will be assumed to contain the password information 
 
arguments after -m are passed to make(1) after password changes 
-nopw passwords may not be changed remotely using passwd 
-nogecos full name may not be changed remotely using passwd or chfn 
-nohome home information may not be changed remotely using passwd 
-noshell shell may not be changed remotely using passwd or chsh

This usage message is not an error message. It introduces the -D option of rpc.yppasswdd. If the daemon is started with the -D option, the usage message is no longer displayed.

If an unsupported option is used with ypserv or rpc.yppasswdd, the options are ignored and the daemon is started.

Performance

There are no known performance issues.

Documentation

For further information, see the following manpages:

Information on NIS1.2 enhanced features can be found at http://docs.hp.com/en/netcom.html#NFS%20Services

Also, at this site can be found the ONC+ Release Notes and the NFS Services Administrator’s Guide.

Obsolescence

NIS protocol version 1 (NISv1) is deprecated in this release and will be obsoleted in a future HP-UX release. HP recommends that you move to the next protocol version of NIS.