NIS database administration

About NIS

NIS is a distributed database system that is used to centralize administration for a wide variety of network configuration information. NIS can be configured on the appliance to provide host name to IP address resolution, IP address to host name resolution, and netgroup authentication for access control of NFS clients.

A distributed NIS database consists of a single host or master server, and client servers with replicate databases. All administrative and database changes are performed on the master server and then propagated to NIS client servers, giving each host on the network knowledge about the entire system.

Netgroups

Netgroups are a NIS component used to associate a group of hosts with a group name. Netgroups are configured on the master NIS server and processed into netgroup maps that are propagated to client NIS servers.

Configuring NIS from the GUI

To configure NIS on the appliance, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	In the Appliance Manager, select Setup tab > NIS.
2	On the NIS - General page, ensure that the NIS Enable check box is selected. This enables resolution of hosts and netgroups through NIS.
3	Enter the name of the NIS domain to which the appliance belongs. The name must match the domain served by the specified NIS domain servers. For example: `companyname.com`
4	List IP addresses of NIS servers that serve the NIS domain specified in the NIS Domain Name option. All servers specified are monitored by health checks. If a connection is lost, failover to any of the listed NIS servers will occur. If no servers are specified, the appliance broadcasts on all interfaces and listens for NIS server responses. The appliance then binds to the NIS servers that respond.

Configuring NIS from the command line

To configure NIS from the command line, enter

set config.system.nis.enable <on|off>

set config.system.nis.domainname [<nis-server-ip>]

set config.system.nis.servers [<nis-server-ip> ...]

Administrative CLI commands

After you have configured on the appliance, you can use the following CLI commands to display status and configuration information:

Command	Description
`nis info`	Displays the status of NIS client services. This command displays the NIS domain name, IP address, binding type, state, binding status, last poll time, and number of pending client calls.
`ypmatch`	Prints NIS map key values.
`ypwhich`	Prints the name of the active NIS server.
`ypcat`	Prints all values in the NIS map.