nisfiles(4)
NAME
nisfiles - NIS+ database files and directory structure
SYNOPSIS
/var/nis
DESCRIPTION
The Network Information Service Plus (NIS+) uses a memory
based, replicated database. This database uses a set of
files in the /var/nis directory for checkpointing to table
storage and for maintaining a transaction log. Addition-
ally, the NIS+ server and client use files in this directory
to store binding and state information.
The NIS+ service implements an authentication and authoriza-
tion system that is built upon Secure RPC. In this implemen-
tation, the service uses a table named cred.org_dir.domain-
name to store the public and private keys of principals that
are authorized to access the NIS+ namespace. It stores group
access information in the subdomain groups_dir.domain-name
as group objects. These two tables appear as files in the
/var/nis/data directory on the NIS+ server.
Unlike the previous versions of the network information ser-
vice, in NIS+, the information in the tables is initially
loaded into the service from the ASCII files on the server
and then updated using NIS+ utilities. See nistbladm(1).
Some sites may wish to periodically regenerate the ASCII
files for archival purposes. To do this, a script should be
added in the crontab(1) of the server that lists these
tables and creates the ASCII file from the result.
Note that except for the NIS_COLDSTART and
NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE file, no other files should be manipu-
lated by commands such as cp(1), mv(1) or rm(1). The tran-
saction log file keeps logs of all changes made, and hence
the files cannot be manipulated independently.
The files described below are stored in the /var/nis direc-
tory:
NIS_COLDSTART
Contains NIS+ directory objects that are to be
preloaded into the NIS+ cache at startup time. This
file is usually created at NIS+ installation time.
See nisinit(1M) or nisclient(1M).
NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE
Contains the current cache of NIS+ bindings being
maintained by the cache manager. The contents can be
viewed with nisshowcache(1M).
client_info
Contains configuration information, for example, pre-
ferred servers, options, and the like, for
nis_cachemgr(1M) and potentially other NIS+ clients on
the system. It is manipulated by the nisprefadm(1M)
command.
.pref_servers
A cached copy of preferred server information. It is
maintained by nis_cachemgr. Do not edit this file
manually.
trans.log
Contains a transaction log that is maintained by the
NIS+ service. It can be viewed using the nislog(1M)
command. This file contains holes. Its apparent size
may be a lot higher than its actual size. There is
only one transaction log per server.
data.dict
A dictionary that is used by the NIS+ database to
locate its files. It is created by the default NIS+
database package.
data.dict.log
The log file for the database dictionary. When the
server is checkpointed, this file will be deleted. See
the discussion of the -C option of nisping(1M).
data Contains databases that the server uses.
data/root.object
On root servers, this file contains a directory object
that describes the root of the name space.
data/parent.object
On root servers, this file contains a directory object
that describes the parent namespace. This file is
created by the nisinit(1M) command.
data/table_name
For each table in the directory there is a file with
the same name that stores the information about that
table. If there are subdirectories within this direc-
tory, the database for the table is stored in the
file, table_name.subdirectory.
data/table_name.log
Contains the database log for the table table_name.
The log file maintains the state of individual tran-
sactions to each database. When a database has been
checkpointed, that is, all changes have been made to
the data/table_name stable storage, this log file
will be deleted.
Currently, NIS+ does not automatically do checkpoint-
ing. The system administrator may want to do nisping-C
operations periodically, perhaps once a day, to check-
point the log file. This can be done either through a
cron(1M) job, or manually.
data/root_dir
On root servers, this file stores the database associ-
ated with the root directory. It is similar to other
table databases. The corresponding log file is called
root_dir.log.
data/cred.org_dir
Table containing the credentials of principals in this
NIS+ domain.
data/groups_dir
Table containing the group authorization objects
needed by NIS+ to authorize group access.
data/serving_list
Contains a list of all NIS+ directories that are being
served by the NIS+ server on this server. When this
server is added or deleted from any NIS+ directory
object, this file is updated by the server.
SEE ALSO
cp(1), crontab(1), mv(1), nis(1), nis_cachemgr(1M), nis-
cat(1), nismatch(1), nistbladm(1), rm(1), cron(1M),
nisclient(1M), nisinit(1M), nislog(1M), nisping(1M),
nisprefadm(1M), nisshowcache(1M), nis_objects(3NSL)
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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