Introduction

This chapter concentrates mainly on how to configure and administer the servers and clients in an NIS (Network Information Service) domain. NIS is a huge topic that could potentially span several volumes. The purpose of this chapter is to prepare you for questions regarding NIS that might appear on the exam. We also want to provide an overview of NIS, complete enough so that you are equipped to set up a basic NIS network and understand its use. A brief overview of NIS+, originally designed as a replacement for NIS, is included in this chapter, but you should note that Sun does not intend to support this name service in future releases of the Solaris operating environment. It is included here for background information and comprehensiveness, as it is not specifically tested in the exam other than to explain what it is.

DNS and LDAP are also introduced in this chapter (LDAP is expected to replace NIS and NIS+ in the future). This chapter shows how to set up a client using the LDAP and DNS Naming Services.