Using NIS to maintain host information

Advantage of using NIS

Like DNS, NIS enables you to centrally maintain host information, so you don't have to update the /etc/hosts file on each filer in your network.

NIS also enables you to maintain user information. For more information, see the Storage Management Guide.

About configuring NIS

You can configure the filer to use one or more NIS servers either during the setup procedure or later using the Data ONTAP options at the command line.

If you configure NIS later, you need to

Specify the NIS server to which the filer should bind.
Specify the domain name of the filer using the nis.domainname option.
Enable NIS on the filer using the nis.enable option.
Note
If you want to use NIS as your primary method of host name resolution, specify it ahead of other methods in the hosts map in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. For information about how to edit the nsswitch.conf file, see Changing the host name search order.

Specifying NIS servers to bind to

You can specify an ordered list of NIS servers to which you want the filer to bind. The list should begin with the closest NIS server and end with the furthest one.

To specify an ordered list of NIS servers you want the filer to bind to, complete the following step.

Note
You can specify NIS servers by IP address or host name. If host names are used, make sure each host name along with its IP address is listed in the /etc/hosts file. Otherwise, the binding with host name will fail.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command to specify the NIS servers and their order: options nis.servers ip_address,server_name,* The asterisk () specifies that broadcast is used to bind to NIS servers if the servers in the list are not responding. This is the default. If you do not specify broadcasting (that is, no asterisk) and none of the listed servers are responding, NIS services are disrupted until one of the preferred servers responds. Note* Do not use the broadcast feature if you want secured NIS services.

Step

Action

Enter the following command to specify the NIS servers and their order:

options nis.servers ip_address,server_name,*

The asterisk (*) specifies that broadcast is used to bind to NIS servers if the servers in the list are not responding. This is the default. If you do not specify broadcasting (that is, no asterisk) and none of the listed servers are responding, NIS services are disrupted until one of the preferred servers responds.

Note
Do not use the broadcast feature if you want secured NIS services.

Example of specifying NIS servers to bind to

The following lists two servers and uses the broadcast default:

options nis.servers 172.15.16.1,nisserver-1,*

The filer first tries to bind to 172.15.16.1. If the binding fails, the filer tries to bind to nisserver-1. If this binding fails also, the filer binds to any server that responds to the broadcast. While bound to the NIS server that responded to the broadcast, the filer continues to poll the preferred servers. As soon as one of the preferred servers is found, the filer binds to the preferred server.

Specifying the NIS domain name

To specify the NIS domain name, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command: options nis.domainname domain domain is the domain name of the filer; for example, the domain name of a filer toaster.netapp.com is netapp.com.

Enabling or disabling NIS

To enable or disable NIS on your filer, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command: options nis.enable {on\|off} Use `on` to enable and `off` to disable NIS.

Displaying NIS information

You can display the following types of NIS information:

NIS domain name
Last time the local group cache was updated
The following information about each NIS server that was polled by the filer:
- IP address of the NIS server
- Type of NIS server
- State of the NIS server
- Whether the filer is bound to the NIS server
- Time of polling

To display NIS information, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command: nis info

Displaying the NIS server name

To display the NIS server name to which the filer binds to currently, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following command: ypwhich