NAME
nisinit — NIS+ client and server initialization utility
SYNOPSIS
nisinit
-r
nisinit
-p
Y|D|N
parent_domain
host...
nisinit
-c
-H host
|
-B
|
-C coldstart
DESCRIPTION
nisinit
initializes a machine to be a
NIS+
client or an
NIS+
root master server.
It may be easier to use
nisclient(1M)
or
nisserver(1M)
to accomplish this same task.
Options
- -r
Initialize the machine to be a
NIS+
root server.
This option creates the file
/var/nis/root.object
and initializes it to contain information about this machine.
It uses the
sysinfo()
system call to retrieve the name of the default domain.
To initialize the machine as an NIS+ root server, it is advisable to use the
-r
option of
nisserver(1M),
instead of using
nisinit -r.
- -p Y | D | N parent_domain host ...
This option is used on a root server to initialize a
/var/nis/parent.object
to make this domain a part of the namespace above it.
Only root servers can have parent objects.
A parent object describes the namespace ``above'' the
NIS+
root.
If this is an isolated domain, this option should not be used.
The argument to this option tells the command what type of name server is
serving the domain above the
NIS+
domain. When clients attempt to resolve a name that is outside of the
NIS+
namespace, this object is returned with the error
NIS_FOREIGNNS
indicating that a name space boundary has been reached. It is up to the
client to continue the name resolution process.
The parameter
parent_domain
is the name of the parent domain in a syntax that is native to that type
of domain. The list of host names that follow the domain parameter
are the names of hosts that serve the parent domain. If there is more than
one server for a parent domain, the first host specified should be the
master server for that domain.
- Y
Specifies that the parent directory is a NIS version 2
domain.
- D
Specifies that the parent directory is a DNS
domain.
- N
Specifies that the parent directory is another
NIS+
domain. This option is useful for connecting a pre-existing
NIS+
subtree into the global namespace.
Note that in the current implementation, the
NIS+
clients do not take advantage of the
-p
feature. Also, since the parent object is currently not replicated on root replica servers,
it is recommended that this option not be used.
- -c
Initializes the machine to be a
NIS+
client.
There are three initialization options available: initialize
by coldstart, initialize by hostname, and initialize by broadcast.
The most secure mechanism is to initialize from a trusted coldstart file.
The second option is to initialize using a hostname that you specify
as a trusted host.
The third method is to initialize by broadcast and it is the
least secure method.
- -C coldstart
Causes the file coldstart to be used as a prototype
coldstart file when initializing a
NIS+
client.
This coldstart file can be copied from a machine that is already
a client of the
NIS+
namespace.
For maximum security, an administrator can encrypt and encode (with
uuencode(1))
the coldstart file and mail it to an administrator bringing up a new machine.
The new administrator would then decode (with
uudecode()),
decrypt, and then use this file
with the
nisinit
command to initialize the machine as an
NIS+
client.
If the coldstart file is from another client in the same domain,
the
nisinit
command may be safely skipped and the file copied
into the
/var/nis
directory as
/var/nis/NIS_COLD_START.
- -H hostname
Specifies that the host
hostname
should be contacted as
a trusted
NIS+
server.
The
nisinit
command will iterate over each transport
in the
NETPATH
environment variable and attempt to contact
rpcbind(1M)
on that machine.
This hostname
must
be reachable from the
client without the name service running.
For
IP
networks this means
that there must be an entry in
/etc/hosts
for this host when
nisinit
is invoked.
- -B
Specifies that the
nisinit
command should use an IP
broadcast to locate a
NIS+
server on the local subnet.
Any machine that is running the
NIS+
service may answer.
No guarantees are made that the server that answers is a server of the
organization's namespace.
If this option is used, it is advisable to check with your
system administrator that the server and
domain served are valid. The binding
information can be dumped to the standard output using the
nisshowcache(1M)
command.
Note that
nisinit -c
will just enable navigation of the
NIS+
name space from this client. To make
NIS+
your name service, modify the file
/etc/nsswitch.conf
to reflect that. See
nsswitch.conf(4)
for more details.
RETURN VALUE
nisinit
returns
0
on success and
1
on failure.
EXAMPLES
This example initializes the machine as an
NIS+
client using the host
freddy
as a trusted server.
This example sets up a client using a trusted coldstart file.
nisinit -cC /tmp/colddata
This example sets up a client using an IP broadcast.
This example sets up a root server.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
- NETPATH
This environment variable may be set to the transports to try when
contacting the
NIS+
server (see
netconfig(4)).
The client library will only attempt to contact the server using
connection oriented transports.
FILES
- /var/nis/NIS_COLD_START
This file contains a list of servers, their transport addresses, and their
Secure RPC public keys that serve the machine's default domain.
- /var/nis/hostname/root.object
This file describes the root object of the
NIS+
namespace. It is a standard XDR-encoded
NIS+
directory object that can be modified by authorized clients using the
nis_modify()
interface.
- /var/nis/hostname/parent.object
This file describes the namespace that is logically above the
NIS+
namespace. The most common type of parent object is a DNS object.
This object contains contact information for a server of that domain.
- /etc/hosts
Internet host table.
WARNINGS
HP-UX 11i Version 2 is the last HP-UX release on which NIS+ is
supported.
LDAP is the recommended replacement for NIS+. HP fully supports
the industry standard naming services based on LDAP.
AUTHOR
nisinit
was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
