nisping(1M)




NAME

     nisping - send ping to NIS+ servers


SYNOPSIS

     /usr/lib/nis/nisping [-uf] [-H hostname] [-r | directory]

     /usr/lib/nis/nisping -C [-a] [-H hostname] [directory]


DESCRIPTION

     In the first SYNOPSIS line,  the  nisping  command  sends  a
     ``ping''  to  all  replicas  of  a   NIS+  directory. Once a
     replica receives a ping,  it  will  check  with  the  master
     server  for   the directory to get updates. Prior to pinging
     the replicas, this command attempts to  determine  the  last
     update "seen" by a replica and the last update logged by the
     master. If these two timestamps are the same,  the  ping  is
     not sent. The -f (force) option will override this feature.

     Under normal circumstances, NIS+ replica servers get the new
     information from the master NIS+ server within a short time.
     Therefore, there should not be any need to use nisping.

     In the second SYNOPSIS line, the nisping -C command sends  a
     checkpoint request to the servers. If no directory is speci-
     fied, the home domain, as  returned  by  nisdefaults(1),  is
     checkpointed.  If all directories, served by a given server,
     have to be checkpointed, then use the -a option.

     On receiving a checkpoint request, the servers would  commit
     all  the  updates for the given directory from the table log
     files to the database files.  This command, if sent  to  the
     master  server,  will  also  send updates to the replicas if
     they are out of date.  This option  is  needed  because  the
     database  log  files  for  NIS+ are not automatically check-
     pointed. nisping should be used at frequent intervals  (such
     as  once  a day) to checkpoint the  NIS+ database log files.
     This command can be added to the  crontab(1)  file.  If  the
     database  log  files  are not checkpointed, their sizes will
     continue to grow.

     If the server specified by the  -H option does not serve the
     directory, then no ping is sent.

     Per-server and per-directory access restrictions may  apply;
     see  nisopaccess(1).  nisping  uses  NIS_CPTIME and NIS_PING
     (resync (ping) of replicas), or NIS_CHECKPOINT  (for  check-
     point).  Since  the  NIS_PING  operation  does  not return a
     status, the nisping command is typically unable to  indicate
     success or failure for resyncs.


OPTIONS

     -a    Checkpoint all directories on the server.
     -C    Send a request to checkpoint, rather than a  ping,  to
           each  server.  The  servers schedule to commit all the
           transactions to stable storage.

     -H hostname
           Only the host hostname is sent the ping,  checked  for
           an update time, or checkpointed.

     -f    Force a ping,  even  though  the  timestamps  indicate
           there is no reason to do so. This option is useful for
           debugging.

     -r    This option can be used to update or get status  about
           the   root  object  from  the root servers, especially
           when new root replicas are added or deleted  from  the
           list.

           If used without -u option, -r will send a ping request
           to  the  servers  serving  the  root domain.  When the
           replicas receive a ping, they will update  their  root
           object if  needed.

           The -r option can  be  used  with  all  other  options
           except with the -C option; the root object need not be
           checkpointed.

     -u    Display the time of the last update;  no  servers  are
           sent a ping.


RETURN VALUES

     -1    No servers were contacted, or the server specified  by
           the -H switch could not be contacted.

     0     Success.

     1     Some, but not  all,  servers  were  successfully  con-
           tacted.


EXAMPLES

     Example 1: Using nisping

     This example pings all replicas of the default domain:

     example% nisping

     Note that this example will not ping  the  the  org_dir  and
     groups_dir subdirectories within this domain.

     This example pings the server  example which is a replica of
     the  org_dir.foo.com. directory:

     example% nisping -H example org_dir.foo.com.

     This example checkpoints all servers of the org_dir.bar.com.
     directory.

     example% nisping -C org_dir.bar.com.


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

     NIS_PATH
           If this variable is set, and the NIS+  directory  name
           is  not fully qualified, each directory specified will
           be searched until the directory is found.


ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWnisu                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|


SEE ALSO

     crontab(1), nisdefaults(1), nisopaccess(1), nislog(1M), nis-
     files(4), attributes(5)


NOTES

     NIS+ might not  be  supported  in  future  releases  of  the
     SolarisTM  Operating Environment. Tools to aid the migration
     from NIS+ to LDAP are available in the Solaris  9  operating
     environment.      For      more      information,      visit
     http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html.


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