Chapter 15: Naming Services

Overview

SOLARIS 9 EXAM OBJECTIVES COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Describe naming service concepts, and explain how to use the naming service switch file, the Name Service Cache Daemon (NSCD), and the getent command to get naming service information.

• Given a description of a naming service client, identify the steps and commands to configure the DNS client and set up the LDAP client.

• Explain the purpose, features, and functions of NIS namespace information, domains, and daemons.

• Explain how to configure the name service switch for different lookups, and configure a NIS domain using the required maps, files, commands, and scripts.

• Explain how to build custom NIS maps.

Throughout the course of this book, you've learned about a variety of configuration options and services needed to support the Solaris environment. After you transition from using only a local computer to running on a network, more configuration options and services come into play. You will need a network address and a netmask. You'll also need to know how to contact other computers on the network. These examples certainly aren't a complete list of configurable options, but you get the idea. To provide the variables for these configurations, you can either edit local files (called the /etc files), or use a naming or directory service over the network.

This chapter focuses on the naming and directory services used by Solaris to provide network-wide configuration for client computers. Using these services can reduce the chance of configuration mistakes, as well as ease network configuration administration by providing a centralized administration point.