Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition

RPC and XDR | 31

Sys Admin

Overview

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3. Copy the ypMakefile to /var/yp/Makefile.

4. Run make from the /var/yp directory, which builds the databases and initial-

izes the server.

5. Start ypserv, the NIS server daemon.

Setting Up an NIS Client

Setting up an NIS client involves only the following steps:

1. Set the domain name for NIS using domainname, which should be the same

name used by the NIS server.

2. Run ypbind.

NIS User Accounts

NIS networks have two kinds of user accounts: distributed and local. Distributed

accounts must be administered from the master machine; they provide informa-

tion that is uniform on each machine in an NIS domain. Changes made to

distributed accounts are distributed via NIS maps. Local accounts are adminis-

tered from the local computer; they provide account information unique to a

specific machine. They are not affected by NIS maps, and changes made to local

accounts do not affect NIS. When NIS is installed, preexisting accounts default to

local accounts.

RPC and XDR

RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is the session protocol used by both NFS and NIS.

It allows a host to make a procedure call that appears to be local but is really

executed remotely on another machine on the network. RPC is implemented as a

library of procedures, plus a network standard for ordering bytes ...