Setting up NIS

Setting up an NIS domain

Before you configure machines as NIS servers or clients, you must plan the NIS domain. Some of the tasks you perform during this planning stage include:

Chosing a domain name (you will tell NIS the name of your domain later, when you set up your NIS master server).
A domain name can be up to 256 characters long. However, because your /var/yp directory may reside in an s5 file system, and the domain name you select may be longer than the 14-character limit that s5 imposes on filenames, the program ypinit makes a shortened domain name and stores it in the /var/yp/aliases file. The name of the database directory /var/yp/domainname will correspond to the shortened alias for the domain name.
Determining which machines will serve or be served by the NIS domain.
Once you have chosen a domain name, make a list of network hosts that will give or receive NIS service within that domain.
Determining which machine should be master server (you can always change this at a later date).
Determining which hosts on the network, if any, are to be slave servers.
Finally, determining all the hosts that are to be NIS clients.

You will probably want all hosts in your network's administrative domain to receive NIS services, although this is not strictly necessary. If this is the case, give the NIS domain the same name as the network administrative domain.