rpc.nisd(1M)

NAME

rpc.nisd − NIS+ service daemon

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/rpc.nisd [ −flrvY ] [ −c seconds ] [ −d dictionary ] [ −L number ] [ −S level ]

AVAILABILITY

SUNWnisu

DESCRIPTION

The rpc.nisd daemon is an ONC RPC service that implements the NIS+ service. This daemon must be running on all machines which serve a portion of the NIS+ namespace.

rpc.nisd is usually started from a system startup script.

OPTIONS

−f Force the server to do a checkpoint of the database when it starts up. Forced checkpoints may be required when the server is low on disk space. This option removes updates from the transaction log that have propogated to all of the replicas.

−l Force the service to use only the loopback transports rather than the network wide transports. When setting the security level of the server to 0 (see below) this option prevents the service from receiving requests from the network that might compromise the system. This option should never be specified during normal operation.

−r Tell the daemon that it is running on a root server. The primary difference between the root server and a non-root server is that root servers are members of the same domain they serve, whereas non-root servers are always members of a domain above the domain they serve. Additionally, root servers have a file root.object in their /var/nis directory that describes the root namespace.

−v Verbose. With this option, the daemon sends a running narration of what it is doing to the syslog daemon (see syslogd(1M)) at LOG_INFO priority. This option is most useful for debugging problems with the service.

−Y Put the server into NIS (YP) compatibility mode. When operating in this mode, the NIS+ server will respond to NIS Version 2 requests using the version 2 protocol. Because the YP protocol is not authenticated, only those items that have read access to nobody (the unauthenticated request) will be visible through the V2 protocol. It supports only the standard Version 2 maps in this mode (see NOTES in ypfiles(4)).

−c seconds
Set the number of seconds between checks for updates to the namespace. Normally, changes in the namespace are proactive and the master server pings all of the replicas to inform them of changes. However when the ping is missed because the replica was either down or busy, and this timeout expires, the replica will note the new information. By default this is set to 120 seconds (two minutes).

−d dictionary
Specify an alternate dictionary for the NIS+ database. The primary use of this option is for testing. Note that the string is not interpreted, rather it is simply passed to the db_initialize function (See nis_db(3N)).

−L load Specify the amount of “load” the NIS+ service is allowed to place on the server. The load is specified in terms of child processes that the server may spawn. This level must be at least 1 for the callback functions to work correctly. The default is 128.

−S level Set the authentication security level of the service. The argument is a number between 0 and 2. By default, the daemon runs at security level 2.

0 Security level 0 is designed to be used for testing and initial setup of the NIS+ namespace. When running at level 0, the daemon does not enforce any access controls. Any client is allowed to perform any operation.

1 At security level 1, the daemon accepts both AUTH_SYS and AUTH_DES credentials for authenticating clients and authorizing them to perform NIS+ operations. This is not a secure mode of operation since AUTH_SYS credentials are easily forged. It should not be used on networks in which any untrusted users may potentially have access.

2 At security level 2, the daemon accepts only AUTH_DES credentials for authentication and authorization. This is the greatest level of security currently provided by the NIS+ service. This is the default security level if the −S option is not used.

EXAMPLES

The following example sets up the NIS+ service to emulate YP.

example% rpc.nisd −Y

The following example sets up the NIS+ service as a root server and emulating YP.

example% rpc.nisd −rY

ENVIRONMENT

NETPATH The transports that the NIS+ service will use can be limited by setting this environment variable (see netconfig(4)).

FILES

/var/nis/parent.object This file contains an XDR encoded NIS+ object that describes the namespace above a root server. This parent namespace may be another NIS+ namespace or a foreign namespace such as one served by the Domain Name Service.

/var/nis/root.object This file contains an XDR encoded NIS+ object that describes the root of the namespace. It is only present on servers that are serving the root of the namespace.

/var/nis/NIS_COLD_START
This file contains the necessary information for the NIS+ client libraries to locate a server for the default domain.

/var/nis/NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE
This file contains a set of cached objects describing servers that serve other portions of the NIS+ namespace. It is created and maintained by the nis_cachemgr(1M).

/etc/init.d/rpc initialization script for NIS+

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