Configuring NIS clients on Linux

To configure the NIS client on a Linux computer:

1. Stop any running NIS service and remove all files from the /var/yp/binding directory. For example, run the following commands:

   /sbin/service ypbind stop

   rm -rf /var/yp/binding/*

2. Set the NIS domain name for the client to the zone name or NIS domain name of the computer where the adnisd process is running.

   domainname zone_name

   For example, if you have installed adnisd on a computer in the corpHQ zone:

   domainname corpHQ

3. Edit the NIS configuration file, /etc/yp.conf, to specify the Centrify zone and the name of the computer where adnisd is installed.

   domain zonename server hostname

   For example, add a line similar to this to /etc/yp.conf:

   domain corpHQ server localhost

   If your NIS clients are configured for broadcast discovery, this step may not be necessary.

4. Start the ypbind service.

   On Red Hat Linux, run:

   /sbin/service ypbind start

   On Debian 3.1, run the nis script (controlled using the file /etc/default/nis). By default, the script starts the NIS client, ypbind. For example, run the following command:

   /etc/init.d/nis start

   One SuSE Linux 9.3 Professional, run:

   /etc/init.d/ypbind start

5. Modify the passwd, group, and shadow lines in /etc/nsswitch.conf file to use compat as the source:

   passwd: compat
   group:  compat
   shadow: compat

6. Restart services that rely on the NIS domain, or reboot the computer to restart all services. The most common services to restart are autofs, NSCD, cron and sendmail.