Summary

DHCP and NIS both provide mechanisms for centrally administering computers on your network. DHCP can provide information that helps client computers get up and running quickly on the network. NIS enables you to distribute a wide range of configuration information among Linux and UNIX systems. DHCP is used to provide information about your network to Windows, Linux, Mac, or other client computers on your network. IP addresses can be assigned dynamically, meaning they are distributed from a pool of IP addresses. Or specific addresses can be assigned to clients, based on specific Ethernet hardware addresses.

You can configure Fedora as an NIS client, an NIS master server, or an NIS slave server. An NIS client can take advantage of shared information from an NIS server. The NIS master server builds the databases of information (called maps) and enables access to those maps from the network. Optional NIS slave servers can be used to maintain copies of the NIS maps, enabling NIS service to continue on the network in the event that the NIS master server goes down. If you need to work with both Windows and UNIX, Microsoft makes an NIS connector service that allows decent integration between Active Directory and NIS.