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NetInfo Editions 4.x User Manual

1. niutil mergeprop t bravo admin_db machines alpha serves network Bind to child The admin domain had achild domain on bravo This connection should still be correct Check the serves property entries in the admin database niutil list t bravo admin_db machines niutil read t bravo admin_db machines alpha niutil read t bravo admin_db machines bravo alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network bravo name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves bravo local The child domain local on bravo previously pointed to host charlie as its parent This must be changed to bravo Change the local bravo domain niutil destroy t bravo local machines charlie niutil mergeprop t bravo local machines bravo serves admin_db Check the serves properties of this database niutil list t bravo local machines niutil read t bravo admin_db machines bravo bravo name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves local admin_db Remove databases Login as the superuser on host charlie to remove the old databases from old host nidomain d admin dp nidomain d local These commands should remove the database files and stop the netinfod process es The system can now be disconnected from the network 102 Users Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Managing Users and Groups User and group accounts are created and the users given access to domains by entering informat
2. 107 Neth nf0 StartUp a E AEE SA E aE E A 107 Neth nfo but down 108 User Maintenance An 109 LI SHA GNI PASSW HEET 109 writes Property ican eeen nepi a aa apa aa iiaa aaa 109 Ete AN o EE 110 sel 110 Database Files niaaa a aae a eaaet 110 EECHELEN te a E O a aa EE 110 Enterprise Edition Features ssssssessnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn nnna 111 Bezdall Proxies osm a a aa E a aaa a aE a a 112 RFC 1048 SUP POM ET 112 Netlnto Domain Aliasing s ssssessssssssrrssssrrrserrnnrinnssrnnsstinnnsrtnnnsrnnsntnnnnnt 113 Hostname Acquisition sssssssssressrrsessrrsssrrrssrernsttntsttnnnnettnnsertnnnstnnsntnnnant 114 Automatic Host Addition sesssssssssssrrssssrrsssrirrssrirerirnnssttnnsstinnnntnnnntnnnnnnnn ne 116 Support for Diskless Worksdations 118 Support for M ulti homed SerVel cc cece eeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecaeeeeteeeeteeaaeees 120 Performance Enhancements ccccccceeeeeeeeneeeeeeenee teense eeteaeeeetenaeeeeeaeeeene 121 Smarter DINGIN e RE 122 NIS Emulation cceseesesssssseneeceeeeeeeeeeesensensneaeeoneoeeeesseeeeeseasaeaeeaeeogeeeseeeeeeseneaes 123 HOW NIS Emulation work 124 Ensure NIS domains are correct eerereEREESESRSERRREREEEEREEEEEREEREEREEEEEEREEREREEE 125 Using NIS as well asNetlnto eee cece eee e tere ete eeeeeteaeeeeeeaeeeeeaaeeeetea 126 Using NetInfo without USING NIS 00 ccc eee ee teeee eee tecaee ee teaeeeeeaeeeetee 127 Mapping NetInfo data to NIS maps 128 ENEE c
3. machines alpha there is one child domain called alpha which is served from database with tag local On machine bravo machines bravo there is one child domain called bravo which is served from database with tag local 58 Naming Databases Example Create a local database Directory and Files Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Managing Databases A domain obtains its information from a database that has been created on a spe cific host The domain only exists when it is bound into the domain hierarchy Databases are created and deleted using the nidomain tool and the directories and properties within that database are manipulated using niutil Some standard database information can also be loaded using niload and subsequently dumped out of the database using nidump Password information can be changed using nipasswd This is explained in the Managing Users section In general a database can have any name it does not have to be the same as the domain name In fact it is probably less confusing to give the databases a different name to the domains they serve There are two compulsory names local and network Local domains must be served from a database called local and the root domain must be served from a da tabase called network Each host must have a local database in order to connect into the hierarchy This example creates this database on host alpha Login as root on host alpha and use nidomain
4. 126 Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Mapping Netinfo data to NIS maps NIS stores all of its data in databases called maps A single NIS map contains the password file another contains the hosts file These files are simple dbm databases NetInfo is very different in internal structure with each database in a NetInfo domain hierarchy having atreelike structure internally A single NetInfo database can contain data for passwords hosts and printers and many other even user defined data types In order to take a NIS lookup query and make it a valid query in the NetInfo context it is necessary for the niypd server to emulate a series of NIS maps Each map isa logical name for a collection of NetInfo data and the niypd process takes care of the conversion of the NIS style map calls to NetInfo queries The following maps are implemented by niypd being almost all of the maps supported by NIS as standard passwd byname passwd byuid group byname group bygid hosts byname hosts byaddr services byname services byport services bynameproto mail aliases networks byaddr networks byname protocols bynumber protocols byname rpc byname rpc bynumber The following maps are NOT implemented at this time netid netmask ethers bootparams Note that even though the bootparams map is not implemented by niypd bootparamd still uses Netinfo directly as a modified bootparamd called nibootparamd is supplied with the system Usi
5. 205 serves network Neti nfo will broadcast on all Ethernet interfaces looking for a host which serves a database with the tag network Thisis a particularly useful feature as it allows you to re configure your network without necessarily altering your NetInfo bindings This particular feature is also present in the Workstation Edition of NetInfo Version 1 04 or later and is also a standard feature of NetInfo as provided by NeXT Computer Inc Clone propagation D etails File format Chapter 8 Server Edition Features Performance Enhancements NetInfo Enterprise Edition integrates all of the enhancements to the core NetI nfo product provided by NeXT Computer Inc as part of the NeXTSTEP 3 0 release These changes whilst relatively minor in nature result in some significant performance improvements in large networks with many domains and when the amount of data stored in NetInfo is great The enhancements are e Improved clone server propagation e File format optimisations e Smarter binding of parent servers to accommodate slower network links The protocol between NetInfo master and clone servers has been improved to eliminate excessive data transfers and thedistribution of NetInfo changes has been streamlined Both these changes result in improved clone performance and reduce the traffic required to propagate changes to clone servers When a number of NetInfo changes are made in succession as often occurs when
6. Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features In order to deter NetInfo servers from binding to inappropriate parent servers over a slow network link NetInfo servers now check for the existence of a local clone of the parent domain before broadcasting to find a suitable parent Also by explicitly configuring the IP address of the machine that serves the parent domain broadcasts can be eliminated altogether See also the discussion of support for Multi homed Servers earlier in this section for other relevant information and the NEXTSTEP NetInfo 3 3 documentation for further details Chapter 9 NIS Emulation This chapter documents the technique used for integration of NetInfo data with the UNIX operating system With SPARC SunOS 4 x and Netinfo Edtion 1 x NetInfo data was integrated into the UNIX lookup mechasnism through modifications to the standard library libc so in conjunction with the lookup daemon lookupd This is the same technique used by NeXT in the NEXTSTEP operating system With Netinfo Editions 2 x and above this technique is no longer used Instead this version of NetInfo provides a special server process to look up data niypd niypd appears to the UNIX system to be the NIS lookup process ypserv This chapter discusses this technique in greater detail and provides important background information to enable you to better manage NetInfo 121 122 Chapter 9 NIS Emulation How NIS Emulation works Programs runni
7. and the sysdev domain are served from databases on the host alpha and the admin domain is served from a database on host charlie The directory structure on each machine is as follows Host Subdirectories alpha etc netinfo local nidb etc netinfo network nidb etc netinfo sysdev nidb bravo etc netinfo local nidb charlie etc netinfo local nidb etc netinfo admin nidb BindingDomainsand Once created a database exists until it is destroyed A domain on the other hand Databases NamingConventions UNIX only exists when NetInfo is running and it has been bound into the hierarchy To bind into the hierarchy adomain must have information about its parent domain and any child domains As the root domain does not have a parent it is recognised by the knowledge that it is served from the database called network A domain doesn t have any knowledge of its own domain name that is stored in its parent domain Binding is achieved by setting up properties in each database These properties specify the database that a domain is served from the database that a domain s parent is served from and the databases that serve any children of the domain There are several concepts in NetInfo and UNIX which usesimilar and hence confusing naming conventions Directory pathnamesin the UNIX filesystem are represented using a slash as a separator The ancestor of all directories isthe root directory which hasthena
8. re fers to the database tagged network on the machine trotter You may supply an IP address instead of a machine name r Load entries in raw format as generated by nidump r The first argument should bethe path of a NetInfo directory into which the information is load ed Sincethe input often specifies properties including name at its top most level the directory you specify may be renamed as a result of this operation If the directory you specify does not exist it will be created EXAMPLE niload passwd lt etc passwd load the local etc passwd file into the local NetInfo database niload d r locations replaces the contents of locationsin the local domain with input given in nidump raw format RESTRICTIONS The r option is not supported by X edoc NetInfo Editions 147 148 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO nidump 8 niutil 8 netinfo 5 aliases 5 bootparams 5 bootptab 5 exports 5 fstab 5 group 5 hosts 5 networks 5 passwd 5 printcap 5 protocols 5 rpc 5 services 5 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nipasswd 1 NAME nipasswd change NetInfo password information SYNOPSIS nipasswd username DESCRIPTION nipasswd changes a user s password in the NetInfo database The superuser may change anyone s password without being required to en ter the old password Ordina
9. 103 gid 10 10 10 real name Chris Smith Bing Lee Jo Smith home directory usr staff chris usr staff bing usr staff jo shall bin csh bin csh bin csh Each user on the system would havea similar database entry Other administrative information such as group data is stored in a database directory in a similar way Example The serves property Chapter 2 Concepts Binding is controlled by the serves property in the machines subdirectories in the database A subdirectory must exist in machines for every host that serves any of the following e its parent domain e its own self domain e or oneof its child domains In the ACME domain structure the sysdev domain is served from the host alpha Its parent is also served from alpha from the database network It has two child domains alpha the local domain on host alpha and bravo the local domain on host bravo As can be seen there are two hosts that serve sysdev its parent or its child domains therefore there must be two machines subdirectories machines alpha machines bravo These subdirectories must have at least three properties each e aname the value is the name of the subdirectory e Internet address e a serves property with oneor more values showing the database address of the databases from which its parent its self and its child domain s are served In the machines alpha subdirectory three value entries must exist fo
10. Chapter 2 Concepts Resources ACME has three UNIX computers with the following hostnames and Internet addresses alpha 192 42 172 1 bravo 192 42 172 2 charlie 192 42 172 3 Two of the machines known as alpha and bravo are used by the System Development division The other machine known as charlie is shared by the Admin and Sales divisions The general managers and the superuser login id root are the only users who have access to all machines These machines are connected in a network so that resources such as printers and disk drives can be shared and so that the users can communicate with each other via electronic mail In the course of the exercises the following machines will be added to the network delta 192 42 172 4 foxtrot 192 42 172 5 golf 192 42 172 6 Users The following list shows the staff members of the organisation and what division they work in This information is normally part of the password configuration file Superuser root Managers genman Development chris bing jo Sales han robin Administration alex pat NetInfo administration is based on the concepts of domains and databases A domain is an abstract collection of administrative information about a group of users and the resources to which they have access Domains can belinked together in a hierarchy Each level in the hierarchy is called a domain level Information can be made available to selected levels in the hi
11. Clients can write to NetInfo A full programmatic interface is provided for clients enabling them to read and write to the NetInfo database This makes it possible to maintain information that is specific to the needs of a particular organisation through a single system NetInfo inter operates fully with NetInfo running on NeXT computers No special configuration is required to achieve complete integration of NeXT and non NexXT systems on theonenetwork Netlnfo comes as standard system software with every NeXT computer Databases created on the other UNIX hosts can be accessed using the graphical user interface on the NeXT 11 12 Chapter 1 Introduction to Netinfo UNIX Administration Configuration Files Networks and Distributed Systems Chapter 2 Netinfo Concepts The system administrator is the person responsible for the upkeep of the computer system Thisincludes maintaining the configuration files setting up new users ensuring there is enough disk space and that users are able to access the datafiles and programs they require backing up files bringing up and shutting down the systems and other administrative tasks as required The system administrator usually logs in as the superuser usually with the login name root A superuser has special privileges to make changes to the system Although you can set up the login id to be something different NetInfo depends on thisname being root as do many other programs M
12. In thecase wherethe NEXTSTEP workstation is already known and hasinformation stored in NetInfo this results in the workstation using the NetInfo supplied data However if the hardware address of the NEXTSTEP workstation is unknown to Netinfo the Automatic Host Addition feature comes into play When a NEXTSTEP workstation boots it checksthe file etc hostconfig to see whether it has a fixed hostname and IP address specified If the etc hostconfig file specifies that the hostname and IP address of the workstation are automatic then the NEXTSTEP system will begin looking for a BOOTP server on the network providing its hardware Ethernet address as a lookup key Thenibootpd program running on a server will receive the lookup request and will consult NetInfo to determine the hostname and IP address of the workstation in question If this workstation is unknown to NetInfo the user of the NEXTSTEP workstation will be told that the Network does not recognise this computer and will be asked to enter a hostname for the new system This hostname will then be relayed to the nibootpd server which will allocate an unused IP address and assign it to the NEXTSTEP workstation in question This information will then be updated in NetInfo automatically without requiring an administrator to maintain any configuration files nibootpd makes an entry in NetInfo for the new host This new entry will include the Ethernet hardware address of the new wo
13. Reference NAME nibootparamd boot parameter server SYNOPSIS nibootparamd d DESCRIPTION nibootparamd is a server process that provides information to NetBoot clients necessary for booting It consults the NetInfo database the machines directory if NetInfo is running and examines the boot and address properties If the client s information is not found NISis consulted if it is running nibootparamd can be invoked either by inetd 8 or by the user OPTIONS d Display the debugging information FILES etc bootparams if NetInfo is not running AUTHOR Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO bootparams 5 inetd 8 nidump 8 niload 8 netinfo 5 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nibootpd 8 NAME nibootpd boot protocol daemon SYNOPSIS nibootpd d DESCRIPTION nibootpd is the bootstrap protocol server daemon described in RFC 951 It is used by diskless hosts to resolve their protocol addresses and to determine which bootfile to netload nibootpd is normally run as a subprocess of inetd 8 daemon The file etc bootptab is the standard database for nibootpd When NetInfo is running this file is not consulted and all nibootpd information comes from NetInfo However even when NetInfo is running this file must exist Blank lines and lines beginning with areignored The first section of the file contains default parameters one per line The first parameter is the default directory of the boot
14. The relevant properties are name thenameof the protocol If the protocol has aliases the property will have multiple values number the associated protocol number The directory services contains directories which refer to ARPA services The rele vant properties are name the name of the service If the service has aliases the property will have multiple values protocol the name of the protocol upon which the service runs If the service runson multiple protocols this property will have mul tiple values port the associated port number of the service The directory users contains information which refer to users The relevant prop erties are name the login name of the user passwd the encrypted password of the user uid the user id of the user gid the default group id of the user realname the real name of the user home the home directory of the user shell the login shell of the user AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO aliases 5 bootparams 5 bootptab 5 fstab 5 group 5 hosts 5 niypd 8 netinfod 8 netgroup 5 networks 5 passwd 5 printcap 5 protocols 5 services 5 137 netinfod 8 138 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME netinfod NetInfo daemon SYNOPSIS netinfod domain tag DESCRIPTION netinfod daemon serves the information in the given domain tag to the net work It isnormally executed automatically by nib
15. a value without destroying the property key while the destroyprop option removes the property and hence all its values Chapter 6 Using Netinfo For example the serves property values of the parent domain started as name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network alpha local After the above changes are made they should read name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network sysdev sysdev_db Part two of steps 2 destroyval and 3 addval could have been achieved using cre ateprop niutil createprop machines alpha serves network sysdev sysdev_db Although the value specifying that its self domain is served from network should not change in this example it must be entered if the createprop option is used 75 Example Moving Domains 76 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Moving Domains You may want to move a domain to a different position in the hierarchy as the access needs of a company change All that is required is to change the binding properties of the old and new parent and any child domains that are affected Figure 5 7 Moving Domains This exercise moves the demos branch from the sysdev domain to become a child of the root domain Changes The link between sysdev and demos must be removed A new link between demos and the root domain must be created None of the child domains of demos delta are affected as the whole branch is be ing moved The nex
16. and re solve to the appropriate network address Database Format Second Level At the second level the following directories exist which have the following names property named name has these values aliases groups machines mounts Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference networks printers protocols rpcs services users These directories contain for the most part only the single property named name The exception isthe machines directory which contains other properties having to do with automatic host installation These properties are the following promiscuous if it exists the bootpd 8 daemon is promiscuous Has no value assignable _ipaddr a range of IP addresses to automatically assigned specified with two values as endpoints configuration_ipaddr the temporary IP address given to unknown machines in the process of booting default_bootfile the default bootfile to assign to anew machine net_passwd optional property If it exists it sthe encrypted password for pro tecting automatic host installations Thedirectory aliases contains directories which refer to individual mailing aliases The relevant properties are name the name of the alias members alist of values each of which isa member of this alias The directory groups contains directories which refer to individual UNIX groups The relevant properties are name thename of the UNIX group passwd the associated password gid the associat
17. create domain path Create a new directory with the given path destroy domain path Destroy the directory with the given path createprop domain path propkey val Create a new property in thedirectory path propkey refers to the name of the property 0 or more property values may be specified If the named property already exists it is overwritten Use appendprop to add new values without overwriting existing ones appendprop domain path propkey val Append the value val to the property propkey in the given path The property will be created if it doesn t already exist If val already exists a duplicate entry will be created mergeprop domain path propkey val M erge values into the property propkey in the given path The property will be created if it doesn t already exist If val already exists it isn t duplicated insertval domain path propkey val index Insert value val at the given index position of the property propkey destroyprop domain path propkey Destroy the property with name propkey in the given path destroyval domain path propkey val Remove a property value from the property propkey in directory path renameprop domain path oldkey newkey Rename a property key in the given path read domain path Read the properties associated with the directory specified in the given path list domain path List the directories in the given domain path The directory ID s are listed along with any name
18. data is loaded with niload netinfod will coalesce the individual changes into a single composite update transaction Since only one transaction with each clone server is needed to distribute the composite update the overhead associated with updating clones is reduced In addition the distribution of updates is now multi threaded Modifications made to the master database are immediately distributed to clones an update need not wait for prior updates to finish before it is handled Update threads operate independently except that updates are guaranteed to arrive at each clonein the correct order The disk format for NetInfo databases has changed to increase the default record size In most cases this reduces the number of files in a database by about 90 and decreases the cost of large searches by 25 These changes have been made to netinfod and support is provided for both the new and the old database formats Also all versions of NetIinfo can be used together on a network regardless of the revision level or database format of the individual servers All configurations including master and clone servers which use different versions of software and different database formats are supported Note that a Enterprise Edition database cannot be directly copied to a Workstation Edition server due to this difference in disk format Use the nidomain command to create a clone database over the network instead 121 Smarter binding 122
19. database 136 network database 17 44 Network Information Service see NIS9 networks 33 89 132 NexT 9 nibindd 21 39 42 48 60 107 110 132 141 nibootparamd 114 118 nibootpd 114 115 116 117 118 nidomain 39 43 48 54 59 110 121 133 144 nidump 32 39 59 86 110 132 145 nifind 133 146 nigrep 133 148 niload 32 39 45 59 86 110 115 119 121 132 145 149 nipasswd 39 59 110 130 134 151 nips 36 43 48 nireport 133 152 NIS9 32 46 domains 125 161 162 Index emulation 123 124 maps 9 46 128 tools 129 with NetInfo 126 NIS Emulation server 157 niutil 36 46 54 59 62 110 115 133 153 niwhich 39 110 133 156 niypd 42 48 107 110 123 124 125 126 128 129 130 132 157 o other 9 overwrite 74 P parameters 35 parent 44 49 54 96 parent domain 19 passwd 45 46 55 90 103 105 132 134 password 134 151 physical file name 20 21 22 24 physical location 20 printcap 90 132 printcap 5 139 process 21 60 132 programmatic interface 11 propagate 10 property 22 23 115 133 _writers 24 add value 68 create 67 key 22 machines 56 master 24 remove 68 serves 23 44 50 users 55 value 22 67 68 protocols 45 90 132 public network 14 Q quick start 33 quick_start 34 35 36 R rc scripts 46 51 rc local 107 real_name 55 103 reboot 38 46 51 reliability 24 remove properties 68 resource 13 25 root 13 18 39 42 48 root dir
20. domain path oldkey newkey niutil opts read domain path niutil opts list domain path propkey niutil opts rparent domain niutil opts resync domain niutil opts statistics domain opts t p u use P password T timeout DESCRIPTION niutil lets you to do arbitrary reads and writes on the given NetInfo domain In order to perform writes niutil must be run as root on the NetInfo master for the database unless the p option is given The database directory specified by path is separated by s similar to UNIX The property names may be given in the path using a but will default to the property name name For example the following refers to a user with the user ID 3 name users uid 3 The following shorter form would also be sufficient users uid 3 You may specify a numeric ID for the directory instead of the string path OPTIONS t Interpret the domain as a tagged domain For example eastman network refers to the database tagged network on the machine eastman You may supply an IP address instead of a machine name 151 152 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference D Prompt for the root password of the given domain so that one can run from other locations in the network besides the master u Authenticate as another user implies p P Password supplied on command line overrides p T Read amp write timeout in seconds default 30
21. domains In this case each database that is located on the host must be removed and all binding links have to be changed This can bea very complex process and so all careshould betaken before removing a host from the system If none of the domains served from the host are required then they can all be deleted but all downlinksfrom parent domains must be reset This example deletes the host charlie from the following network alpha network sysdev admin alpha sysdev_db charlie admin_db alpha bravo charlie alpha local bravo local charlie local Figure 5 14 Deleting a Host As can be seen two domains admin and the local domain are served from charlie The other child domain bravo is also affected asis the parent the root domain The binding links between these two will have to be changed In thisexample we want to retain theadmin and bravo domains Thehost is being removed as it no longer functions satisfactorily In reality anew host may replace the old one but in this example the host bravo will take over as the server of the admin domain This means that the existing admin_db database has to be copied to the new host and all binding has to be changed Copy existing database Bind to parent Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The new structure is as follows al pha network sysdev admin alpha sysdev_db bravo admin_db alpha bravo alpha local bravo local Figure 5 15 Deleting a Host Copy the admin_db databas
22. each known service with the following properties and values main service name as well as any aliases port number protocol name Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Clone Servers If an organisation requires uninterrupted NetInfo service a clone should be established A clone server is an exact copy of a master servermaster server that is a database serving a particular domain Clones cannot be created on the same host as the master database they copy It is up to the administrator to decide if there are sufficient resources available to establish a clone Resources required include sufficient disk space swap space and memory Reliability If ahost is down or adomain cannot be connected for any reason the clone database can be used instead of the inaccessible master database Clone databases however cannot be modified if the master server is down This ensures that there is only one source of domain information Load Balancing Clones can also be used to establish the best load balance of a network A host will search for information locally before attempting to search the network If aclone is established on alocal host it will obtain information from the clone rather than the master database elsewhere in the network Propagating Information When the netinfod daemon for each database is started it first checks to see if the database is a clone or if it has any clones For each master database if any clones are found the daemon s
23. eee ceneeeeeneeeeeeceeeeeteaaeeteaeeeetecaeeseeseaaeesniaeeeeneaes 66 Display Database Properties eceeceeeccneeeesneeeeeeneeeeeeeaeeeeteeeeetenaaeees 67 Create Properties elek 67 Add Property VIE 68 Remove Values and Properties cccccecceceeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeteneeeeeeaeees 69 Managing Re un 70 Names and Bindtng 70 Inserta DOMAN TEE 72 Note Overwriting and Adding Information sesser 74 MOVING DOMAINS sete a niet et aA Ba aa ae 76 n Elte 76 Deleting Re CN 79 JOINING TwohNetworks cece ce ee eeee cette eee eete eee ette ee teaee ee teaeeeeteeaaeeneaeeeenee 82 Moving Information between NetInfo and Flat File 86 Loading Contents ut uf pel EE 86 Dumping Information 86 Copying INfOrMAat ON EE 87 GR wie ste Dee CC 88 Host Configuration Information ceccecseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeaaeees 88 Clone SAVE Snn ae 91 Reliability est oe E etn Ma Ban E A a 91 Bee BALANCING BEEN 91 Propagating Information 91 mate Proper ynta ER sees cece ccceseacedece cade aaa 91 Creatinig a Clon Oe es cae e a E a A a a a ied 92 Add a New Host to the Network sssssssssssssssssrrssssrsssrnnssinnsstinnnntinnntnnnsstnnnnt 95 Movea Host to a Different DOMAIN 000 00 cee eetee ee eeeeeeeeteeeetetaeeeeeeaes 98 RSR EE 100 Managing Users and Groupe 103 E CET 103 Domal ee 103 Elle EE EE E 105 Maintenance wecceeceeceesessensnnneeeeeeeeeeeseeseesensnnaeeoneoneeessueseeseasaeaeaeeoeeeuseeseeeseseaas 107 Network Administration
24. file the database updates its existing information with the data from the input file The appropriate information could also be entered into the local database using niutil creating sub directories and entering each property one line at a time though this would be very time consuming Loading information from NIS If you are running NIS the system information can still be loaded using niload but the input should be extracted from NIS as follows ypcat passwd niload v passwd ypcat hosts niload v hosts and so on for each NIS map Directory Names Password information is loaded into the users directory If the appropriate di rectory does not exist niload will create it Administrators should be aware that the internal directory names are not necessar ily thesame as the flat file names The section on Host Configuration Information in Chapter 5 Using NetInfo explains the information loaded by niload At this stage reboot the system and check that both the daemons started success fully Check that the binding is correct by interrogating the database using the domain names instead of the database tags Try acommon command such as bin ls 1g Check that the results are what you would expect This command must look up user id and group id information using NetInfo Example Install NetInfo on asecond host Configuration Steps Chapter 5 Manual Configuration Install Netinfo on Other Hosts Most networ
25. from sysdev On bravo remove the parent reference in the local database niutil destroyval t bravo local machines alpha serves sysdev_db On alpha remove the child reference in the sysdev domain niutil destroyval t alpha sysdev_db machines bravo serves bravo local Because the host is being moved to a domain in a different branch of the hierarchical tree there is unlikely to be an entry in the machines subdirectories Create the uplink local to admin niutil create t bravo local machines charlie niutil createprop t bravo local machines charli ip_address 192 42 172 3 niutil createprop t bravo local machines charli serves admin_db Create the downlink admin to local niutil create t charlie admin_db machines bravo niutil createprop t charlie admin_db machines bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 niutil createprop t charlie admin_db machines bravo serves bravo local 99 Example Ddetea host 100 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Delete a Host This section explains how to delete a host from the system If a host is removed from the system all domains whose databases are served from that host are affected In the simplest case a host only serves a local domain Therefore only two steps are required remove the downlink from the parent domain then remove the data base It is possible though that a host serves several
26. hostname List the domains by tag served on the given hostname If hostname is unspec ified the local host is used m tag Create a new NetInfo database and server on the local machine for the do main tag of tag d tag Destroy the local NetInfo database and server associated with the domain tagged tag If the database was associated with aclone the machine s serves property on the master is NOT modified to reflect the fact that the database has been deleted c tag master remotetag Creates a clone NetInfo database with the domain tagged tag The database is cloned from the machine master and remote tag remotetag The serves prop erty on the master machine should be set up prior to running this command to contain the entry tag AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO nibindd 8 nidump 8 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME nidump extract a UNIX format file out of Netl nfo SYNOPSIS nidump t r directory format domain DESCRIPTION nidump reads the specified NetInfo domain and dumps a portion of its con tents to standard output When aUNIX administration file format is speci fied nidump provides output using the syntax of the corresponding UNIX flat file The allowed values for format are aliases bootparams bootptab ex ports fstab group hosts networks passwd printcap protocols rpc and services OPTIONS t In
27. it finds the user account information it wants or it reaches the top level Because of this structure a user need only be registered in one domain this must be the highest level domain to which they have access Access to a domain implies access to all its child domains In the three level example above users in the system development department should have user accounts in the sysdev domain This automatically gives them access to machines alpha and bravo The superuser should have an account in each domain particularly the root domain and the local domains for each machine If for some reason a machineis not connected to the network NetInfo can still run allowing the superuser to login to any machine In atwo level hierarchy users who have access to a machine must have accounts in the local database If amachineis not connected to the network these users can still login to their own machine In multi level hierarchies users may have their accounts in a higher level domain If amachine becomes disconnected from the network that higher level domain may be inaccessible This means that some users cannot login to a particular ma chine The administrator can arrange to copy the password information from high level domains into the local domains on each relevant machine to overcome this prob lem Users must be aware though if they change their password it will not prop agate up the domain hierarchy 31 32 Chapter 3 Ne
28. locations ntp niutil createprop locations ntp host ntpserver Note how the domainname is appended to the hostname foobar in the HN field You can pass vendor specific information using the locations bootpd directory Create a property of the format Txxx where xxx is the vendor tag number For example to pass the string hpnp laser cfg for vendor tag 144 you would create the following properties Note that the double quotes must be embedded in the property value otherwise the value will be interpreted as a hexadecimal value niutil create locations bootpd niutil createprop locations bootpd T144 hpnp laser cfg NetInfo Domain Aliasing nibindd now supports netinfod aliasing allowing multiple servers on the same machine potentially to respond to parent requests for the same tag Thisis particularly useful for multi homed machines which NEXTSTEP doesnot currently support The modification allows the binder daemon to substitute some other NetInfo server an aliased server for the server that was requested by a client For instance if a client NetInfo server for tag local requests a given tag network then the binder daemon passes the request off to some other server netinfod network 33 perhaps The criteria for deciding which requests they re all for network get passed to which server is based on some additional NetInfo properties Theextrainformation resides as propertiesin the domain s root direc
29. new property as required If the property created using createprop already exists all existing values are overwritten Normally values are changed using destroyval and addval createprop can be used to change all values of a property by overwriting the existing values Add the ip address and serves properties to the machines bravo directory in the network database L createprop machines bravo ip_address 192 42 192 2 L createprop machines bravo serves bravo local Add the ip address and serves properties to the machines bravo directory in the network database niutil createprop t alpha network machines bravo ip_address 192 42 192 2 niutil createprop t alpha network machines bravo serves bravo local 67 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Add Property In the current example the root domain is served from the network database on Values host alpha This domain has a child the local database also on alpha The properties of the machines alpha directory are niutil read machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network A value must be added to the serves property to specify the child domain niutil mergeprop machines alpha serves alpha local and the directory values should read niutil read machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network alpha local The same result could be achi
30. rpc 45 etc services 45 group 105 groups 137 machines 37 43 49 56 60 114 116 133 137 138 mounts 138 networks 138 printers 139 protocols 139 services 139 users 43 54 103 104 133 139 users root 54 56 usr bin 39 110 usr etc 110 _writers 24 109 A access 88 domain 28 103 superuser 31 accounts 103 add property 68 add values 74 administration Netinfo 16 aliases 88 132 ASCII files 13 assignable ipaddr 117 automatic 114 116 automatic host addition 116 B backup 33 110 files 110 strategy 110 backward compatible 10 BIND 10 binding 19 23 44 49 96 107 121 122 133 child 74 name 74 order 29 parent 73 remove 73 reset 78 two way 70 boot 21 42 48 107 114 116 boot parameter data base 135 boot parameter server 142 boot protocol daemon 143 bootfile 115 BOOTP 115 protocol 114 bootparamd 118 119 142 bootparams 88 119 132 135 bootpd 118 137 143 bootptab 88 115 132 bound 45 97 broadcast 120 broken 83 C Change database value 24 password 151 child 44 49 96 child domain 19 clone 40 91 server 24 clone server 121 clone server propagation 121 compulsory information 54 configuration 9 13 34 45 47 files 33 information 88 110 configuration_ipaddr 117 create 133 database 64 createprop 74 cron 32 custom information 11 D daemon 21 38 42 46 48 51 132 data dump 86 159 160 Index load 86 database 9 10 16 18 19 24
31. sysdev domain alpha First create the users directory if it doesn t already exist Use niutil list to check this niutil create t sysdev sysdev_db users Create the subdirectory for a user niutil create t sysdev sysdev_db users chris Create the properties and values for this user the name property is created when the subdirectory is created niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users chris passwd niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users chris uid 100 niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users chris gid 50 Repeat the process for each user niutil create t sysdev sysdev_db users jo niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users jo passwd n niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users jo uid 101 niutil createprop t sysdev sysdev_db users jo gid 50 These two users should now be able to login to all hosts connected to the sysdev domain Another user the general manager whose login name is genman must have ac cess to all machines Therefore genman should be a registered user of the root do main Login to the host which serves the root domain alpha First create the users di rectory if it doesn t already exist Use niutil list to check this niutil create users Create the subdirectory for the user genman niutil reate users genman niutil reateprop users genman passwd nm niutil reateprop users genman uid 110 niutil reateprop users genm
32. system information Reboot and test Wi Sgr OV QIN a 41 1 Load the NetInfo Software 2 Create the Neti nfo Database Directory Structure 3 Start the Neti nfo daemon 42 Chapter 5 Manual Configuration The NetInfo programs as listed earlier in this chapter must be installed on each host in the network that isto run NetInfo Some of these programs are compulsory and must be located in specific directories Other utilities supplied can be located in any utilities directory chosen by the administrator The Installation Guide that came with your NetInfo package documents the procedure you should follow to load the software for your particular system The following programs must be installed in usr etc on alpha nibindd niypd netinfod nidomain The following utilities are used in the examples throughout the manual They can beinstalled anywhere at the discretion of the administrator For this example they will be installed in usr bin niutil niload nidump nipasswd_ niwhich NetInfo expects to find its databases in a directory called etc netinfo This directory must exist before a domain can be created on any host Check that this directory exists before continuing If not it must be created and owned by root e g mkdir etc netinfo Two daemon processes must be running on each host in order to operate using the NetInfo database nibindd and niypd These processes run in the background Initially only nibindd ne
33. the creation of the local database and binding it into the NetInfo hierarchy you will be prompted for the optional loading of your local configuration files etc hosts etc passwd etc Do you wish to load local configuration data into the local NetInfo database no Answering yes to this question will cause quick_start to load the contents of the following files into the local database on your server Je Je Je Je Je Je Je Je Je Je Je Je tc hosts tc passwd tc group tc rpc tc services tc protocols tc aliases tc networks tc bootptab tc bootparams tc exports tc fstab If you choose not to load these files then your server will take its configuration information from the parent NetInfo domain Check that the directory and database file are created ls al etc netinfo local nidb Collection Check that the netinfod process is started Use nipsif it is installed which should display nips netinfod local Check the default information automatically loaded into the database Use the niutil tool to display alist of directories and properties niutil list t bravo local T machines 2 users 3 groups 4 networks 5 protocols 6 rpcs 7 aliases Naming the child domain Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start This command requests a list of subdirectories of the root directory in the database specified using the tag bravo local niutil list t bravo loca
34. to create the database nidomain m local Here local is the name of the database not the domain The m option speci fies that the database is a master database as opposed to a clone In most cases the database will be a master See the section on Creating a Clone for more information about clones nidomain performs several functions First it creates a directory for the new database and creates a database file It then starts up a netinfod daemon to access this database Some initial information is also loaded into the new database All database directories are created in etc net info which must exist This direc tory should be created at installation time The subdirectory isnamed after the da tabase with an extension of nidb The database file is called collection Asthe database grows extra files will be created in this sub directory with the name ex tension_N where N is an integer generated by the system that corresponds to theinternal directory number stored in that file The above example creates the following directory and file structure etc netinfo local nidb collection 59 Process netinfod Database Information Example Create a network database Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Each database is accessed by a netinfod process This process is started when the database is created If the system is rebooted the nibindd daemon will restart a net infod proce
35. 114 automatic 114 fixed 114 hostname acquisition 114 hosts 45 46 89 132 l inherited information 54 install_netinfo 115 119 installation 33 40 interact 9 internal structure 20 Internet 14 Internet address 15 18 60 internet address 39 inter operate 10 11 IP address 14 114 ip_address 37 43 49 56 115 L LAN 14 leaves 16 load 86 132 145 149 load balancing 24 loading information 86 local 17 35 54 57 59 96 116 117 local area network 14 local database 43 48 localhost 15 login process 31 lookupd 123 M mach 115 118 machine 20 host 56 properties 56 maintain subdirectories 133 map load information 46 NIS9 master 29 create 147 148 property 24 server 24 master database 121 mergeprop 74 mount 8 138 moving information 86 multi homed server 120 N name 54 55 56 103 105 directory 46 domain 37 45 names 30 107 naming Index convention 19 database 20 21 22 24 59 database address 21 22 24 domains 20 hostname 20 21 22 24 physical file 20 21 22 24 tags 21 22 24 UNIX 19 Netinfo 9 32 administration 16 database 13 18 20 114 124 132 dump 132 load 132 domain 125 NIS maps 128 shut down 108 software 35 start up 107 with NIS 126 netinfo 136 netinfo diretcory 42 48 NetInfo Software 42 48 netinfod 21 36 39 59 60 107 110 121 132 140 netinfod local 36 43 48 network 9 13 19 54 57 59 82 join 81 network address 14 15 Network administration
36. 2 Concepts An organisation may set up a network for various reasons e Multiple Locations The organisation may have systems at more than one location and they want the users at those locations to be able to share programs and informa tion e Resource Sharing and Privacy Usersin various departments in an organisation may share hardware such as processors printers and tape drives but may want to keep data separate e Communication Usersin an organisation may want to contact each other using electronic mail Users may also want to be able to connect to other organisations using a public network Networks confined to an office or a floor can be connected as local area networks LAN Usually users are able to share printers disks and other peripherals using a local network The types of cables used define a local network and are restricted to a maximum cable length Several local networks can be connected together using devices such as repeaters Network connections between for example interstate offices of the same company must be connected differently than local networks They may be connected via dedicated lines microwave links the telephone system with modem connection or by some other method This type of network is usually referred to as a wide area network WAN A public network is onethat allows the connection of many individual networks It has a wall defined interface and a set of protocols by which information is
37. 2 3 192 42 172 250 Neti nfo recognises hosts in its network using a unique Internet address If your network is small and is likely to remain isolated it is possible to use the default network numbers supplied with your machines If however you intend to connect to the public network you will have to request a network number from the DDN Network Information Centre Information on contacting this organisation should be supplied with your hardware Depending on the size of your organisation you will receive either a 1 byte 2 byte or 3 byte most common network address The host number will then be 3 2 or 1 byte respectively to make up the four byte address All Internet addresses must be 4 bytes when the host number is included Within UNIX 127 0 0 1 is defined as a machine s local Internet address NetInfo uses the reserved name localhost so that a host can refer to itself The following example will be used throughout this document to illustrate networks and their management by NetInfo A company ACME Software has three major organisational divisions Systems Development Administration and Sales These divisions communicate with each other through electronic mail The General Managers of ACME deal with each of the divisions General Managers Systems SCH Development Administration Figure 2 1 ACME Organisational Structure 15 Example Company Structure Netinfo Administration Domains 16
38. 54 59 114 add values 68 address 21 22 24 45 54 changing 24 compulsory information 54 create 64 73 133 delete 60 64 133 directory 54 136 create 64 delete 64 display 63 dump 132 file 110 ownership 110 internal 22 load 132 local 17 54 location 18 names 59 naming 20 21 22 24 Netinfo 18 properties create 67 display 67 values 68 remove values 68 server 24 tag 38 46 51 54 63 97 delete 133 delete database 64 destroy value 74 destroyprop 74 destroyval 74 directory 22 42 48 136 hierarchy 20 name 46 disk format 121 diskless workstation 118 display database 63 distributed administration 10 distributed system 13 domain 10 16 18 19 20 54 59 107 access 28 103 create 73 create master 147 148 delete 78 exist 21 hierarchy 10 25 information 146 148 156 level 16 54 list 146 148 management 69 master 29 name 19 37 38 45 46 51 54 107 names 30 parent 54 pathname 70 root 16 107 tag 153 two level 26 domainname 125 downlink 44 49 74 133 dump 86 132 dumping information 86 en_address 115 118 ethernet address 114 116 119 F files 110 backup 110 flat 110 flat file9 13 18 110 fstab 45 89 132 G gid 55 103 105 graphical user interface 10 11 group 45 89 103 132 group data 22 groups 105 H heterogeneous 9 14 hierarchy 10 16 19 25 54 57 domain 10 home 55 103 host 14 15 18 20 54 56 88 machines 56 name 20 number 14 15 remove 78 hostname
39. 77 Remove the link to the old parent Create the link to the new parent 78 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Remove the old downlink sysdev to demos The downlink is specified in the machines delta subdirectory As no other in formation exists here the subdirectory can be removed If other domains existed on this host only the specific property value should be removed niutil destroyval sysdev machines delta serves demos demos_db L destroy sysdev machines delta Remove the old uplink demos to sysdev The parent is no longer sysdev so this value should be removed niutil destroyval t delta demos_db machines alpha serves sysdev_db Create the new uplink demos to root The new uplink must point to the root domain located on alpha niutil mergeprop t delta demos_db machines alpha serves network Create the new downlink root to demos The downlink from the root domain must be added The name of the domain is demos served from database demos_db on host delta The demos domain is served from the demos db database on host data A new machines subdirectory must be created and the ip address and serves prop erties generated Login as the superuser on host alpha niutil create machines delta niutil createprop machines delta ip_address 192 42 172 4 Now create the downlink by setting the serves property niutil createprop machines delta ser
40. Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Managing Properties Properties are attached to directories in a database A property can have zero or more values The following options of the niutil tool are used to managethe values of properties niutil t p createprop domain path propkey propval niutil t p destroyprop domain path propkey niutil t p mergeprop domain path propkey propval1 niutil t p appendprop domain path propkey propval1 niutil t p destroyval domain path propkey propval1 niutil t p read domain path If using the t option domain must be a database tag otherwise domain must be bound into the hierarchy createprop is used to create properties Values can be assigned at the same time destroyprop removes the specified property and all its values read is used to display the properties and values of the specified directory path mergeprop appendprop and destroyval are used to manage values The specified property need not already exist This example showing how to manage properties and values follows from the pre vious example that manipulates directories Thenew directory for host bravo has been added in the previous example However this new directory has does not have any properties yet apart from the name The domain structure required is as follows alpha network alpha bravo alpha local bra
41. Neti nfo Editions 4 x User Manual Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd May 1997 Netinfo Editions 4 x User Manual Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd PO Box 3038 Burnley North VIC 3121 Australia Telephone 61 3 9428 0788 Fax 61 3 9428 0786 Internet netinfo xedoc com au Product Development Brett Adam J Matthew Pryor Cameron Bromley Sean Hiscock Version 1 x Andrew C Bernard Version 2 x Aris Colp Version 3 x Aris Colp Sean Woodhouse Luke Howard Version 4 x Luke Howard Sean Woodhouse Manual Development Margaret Hassall RTfM Technical Publishing Pty Ltd Special Thanks David B Wertheimer Copyright Copyright 1992 96 by Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd All rights reserved Trademarks NetInfo is a trademark of NeXT Computer Inc Sun is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories Inc All other product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective own ers Contents Preface NEE vil lge nl e EE vii Related Documents ssssssssssssessseserrrrtsssttttttrntttttnrnressetttnnnnnnnnnnnnnsnnn nenn vii Terms and CONVENTIONS cccccceccssesssseeeeeeecseseeseeecessesessnnaeeeeeesssseeeeeeess viii Introduction to Netinfo ssssssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnnm nnn 9 Implementation AEN 10 Hierarchical Bleu 10 Fast Automatic Propagation cccccccceeeeeecceee tee
42. The child domain delta local must change its old uplink to demosto an uplink to theadmin domain Asthenew parent ison adifferent machine anew machines subdirectory must first be created Add the uplink niutil creat t delta local machines charlie niutil createprop t delta local machines charli ip_address 192 42 172 3 niutil createprop t delta local machines charli serves admin_db The downlink from the admin domain must be added This domain in on host charlie As this parent had no previous knowledge of the host ddta a new machines subdirectory must be created Add the downlink niutil create t charlie admin_db machines delta niutil createprop t charlie admin_db machines del ip_address 192 42 172 4 niutil createprop t charlie admin_db machines del serves delta local 81 Example Join Networks 82 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Joining Two Networks The database serving the root domain of a network must be called network Although unusual there may be an occasion where two networks must be joined together Suppose two faculties of a University Computer Science and Physics have always managed separate networks using NetInfo In order to share information and re sources including a systems administrator they decide to connect these two to gether with anew root domain over the top The existing structure is as follows Comput
43. Thisis possible as niypd has been enhanced to providea fall through mechanism to an existing NIS setup To use this feature you can pass niypd the domain name of the parent NIS domain on the command line To start up niypd with the domain abc com au as the parent NIS domain niypd abc com au If the domain_name parameter is not provided on the command line the parent domain is derived by removing the first component of the local domain name The local domain is alpha abc com au If you use niypd then the parent domain will be abc com au If you want to force a different parent domain you must specify the parent domain explicitly asin the first example above Either usage will cause niypd to emulate all NIS queries for the local NIS domain alpha abc com au and then to fall through and make queries on the parent NIS domain abc com au if it should not find the result data in NetInfo Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Using Netinfo without using NIS If you only want to use NetInfo for your system then you can tell the niypd not to fall through to NIS at all To do this start up niypd with the special local domain name niypd local This tells niypd that it is only to perform localised NetInfo queries and should not use NIS for fall backs Remember the standard installation scripts provided link ypserv to niypd at boot time Edit these scripts if you need to pass a parameter to niypd as described here 125
44. a mailhost ip_address 192 42 172 1 SEE ALSO netinfo 5 AUTHOR Marc Majka NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd BUGS nifind does not complain if domain is not an ancestor specified in a normal search 145 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nigrep 1 NAME nigrep search for a regular expression in the NetInfo hierarchy SYNOPSIS nigrep expression t domain directory DESCRIPTION nigrep searches through the specified domain argument for a regular expres sion It searches the domain s directory hierarchy depth first starting from the root directory It can also start from each directory specified on the com mand line The domain argument can be specified as an absolute or relative domain name The domain argument can be specified as a network address or host name and tag if preceded by the t option On output nigrep prints the directory ID number of the directory which containsthe regular expression and the property key and values whereit was found A lineis printed for each property that contains the regular expres sion OPTIONS t Specify domain as a network address or hostname and tag EXAMPLES nigrep Nn et nigrep Nn et t 192 42 172 17 local nigrep 192 0 9 172 t astra network machines nigrep Net server Users users mounts SEE ALSO netinfo 5 AUTHOR Marc Majka NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedo
45. ad recommended or entered a line at a time using other NetInfo utilities Theinformation can be loaded into the specified internal directories using niload and the appropriate format Administrators should note that the flat file names the format names and the database directory names do not correspond exactly niload can be used to transfer information using the specified file format File Format Description aliases Name aliases file recognised by sendmail for the local host Information from etc aliases is loaded into the aliases directory by niload This directory contains a subdirectory for each known alias with the following properties and values name alias name members one value for each user who is part of the alias bootparams This bootparams entry containsa list of diskless clients and their specific boot information Information from etc bootparams is loaded into the boot params directory by niload bootptab Information from etc bootptab is loaded into the bootptab directory by niload File Format fstab name dir type opts freq passno group name passwd gid users hosts name ip_address networks name address Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Description Contains static information about file systems Information from etc fstab is loaded into the mounts di rectory by niload This directory containsasubdirectory for each known file system with the following properties and values na
46. aff have access to machine alpha only If any users need access to both the admin and academic machines they would be registered as users in the root domain The Math and Engineering Departments are structured in a similar way however they use a different set of machines Both departments have a root domain and two subdomains admin and academic but the local domains are named after the machines in each department Assume the one administrator is managing all three departments They should be organised into three distinct domains each one level below the new root domain Each of the old root domains must be renamed to reflect the fact they are no longer at the top level to something like compute math and engine The rest of the do main hierarchies below these levels will remain the same Users within each department can only login to their own machines but can send mail to all others Any user registered in the new root domain such as the superuser has access to all machines Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Example The domain hierarchy should be set up as follows Multi Level domains Figure 3 4 Multi Level Domain 29 Setting up Clones 30 Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Selecting Hosts The host which serves the root domain should be highly available unless clones have been established It must have a substantial amount of memory swap space and disk space Administrators should select server style mach
47. all request This feature is only included in the Enterprise edition of NetInfo These children are called readall proxies This is configured by setting the readall_ proxies property in thedomain s root directory The property has up to two values first the maximum number of readall proxies second whether only a readall proxy may respond to a readall request if the maxmium number of proxies are running which is called strict proxies If the number of proxies allowed is 1 an unlimited number of proxies will be used up to the system s resource limitations By default no proxies are used by default if proxies are used strict proxies will be used Clone now logs when a readall results in no database being sent due to the clone being current and when it results in the database being sent One important side effect of using readall proxies is a change in the way modifications are handled when a master is replying to a readall request Without proxies the master won t handle the request and won t reply to the request until it s done replying to the readall This would lead to read requests timing out in conjunction with preferential binding and the way the client library handles reconnecting a master s machine could appear catatonic until the readall completed because the lookupd or niypd on that machineistrying continually to contact the master In the case of write requests the client would likely time out waiting
48. alue added Depending on whether there are other values the createprop option may be used instead of destroyval and mergeprop On alpha for sysdev domain niutil destroyval t alpha sysdev machines alpha serves network niutil mergeprop t alpha sysdev machines alpha serves compsci_db On charlie for admin niutil destroyval t charlie admin machines alpha serves network niutil mergeprop t charlie admin machines alpha serves compsci_db On delta for sysad niutil destroyval t delta sysad machines alpha serves network niutil mergeprop t delta sysad machines alpha serves physic_db On golf for adm niutil destroyval t golf adm machines alpha serves network niutil mergeprop t golf adm machines alpha serves physic_db 85 Loading Information Example Loading Information Dumping Information 86 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Moving Information between Netinfo and Flat Files If NetInfo is not running a UNIX system can operate using the flat configuration files Some administrators may wish to keep the flat files up to date in case NetInfo is not available Two utilities are available which enable information to be transferred to and from NetInfo niload loads information from a UNIX format file into the database It reads from standard input interpreting the information according to the specified fo
49. alue in the serves property in machines alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network Clones arealso specified using the dot notation The system determines whether an entry isto a clone or not by looking at the value of the Internet address For example if a database called network on host foxtrot is set up to clone the net work database on host alpha then network must have the following entries In machines alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network In machines foxtrot ip_address 192 42 172 6 serves network Both these entries refer to the self domain but the second is acloneon another host When a clone is created using the nidomain tool information from the specified master database is copied to the new clone database The master must be updated with the details of the new clonebeforethe copying isdone to ensurethat theclone is created correctly Note that it is possible to create a clone with a tag that is different from the tag of the master database However such clones will not be consulted during lookups as lookups always use the tag of the database as a key Such clones therefore do not offer any advantages for load balancing and so forth although they do providea form of automated backup for the database that they are cloning The following examples all show the creation of clones with the same tag as the master database as this is the most common usage of the clone suppor
50. an gid 30 Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Information about user groups must be entered in subdirectory called group For Groups each group in the system a subdirectory must exist with the same name as the group name The subdirectory can have the following properties name The compulsory directory name must correspond to the group name passwd The value of the password is usually left as null for group access gid Each group must have a unique group identification number users This property contains a list of all users who are members of this group 105 106 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Neti nfo Start up Chapter 7 Maintenance Network Administration All binding of domains into the hierarchy occurs when the nibindd daemon is started This daemon must be running on each host in the network that wishes to use NetInfo When nibindd starts it searches the etc netinfo directory for da tabases For each one found it binds it into the hierarchy and launches a netinfod daemon to access the database Each domain knows who its parent is but not its own name If its parent exists on another host then that host must be alive for the new host and domains to be bound correctly In anutshell all ancestors of anew domain must be alive before the new domain can be bound into the hierarchy Usually the nibindd daemon is started at boot time Two processes must be running to operate NetInfo nibindd and niypd These pro
51. are written using courier typeface All commands are single line entries though some have been written in this manual over two lines Users should be aware that no Return gt is required at the end of thefirst line Warnings A warning symbol placed next to text indicates that thein formation should be read before continuing ChecksManual The check symbol is used to indicate when operations can be checked before continuing with the next step Chapter 1 Introduction to Netinfo NetInfo simplifies system administration across a UNIX network It is based on NetInfo from NeXT Computer Inc Systems running on NeXT and other machines can interact with each other NetInfo is a database containing UNIX configuration information accessible across a network A set of tools is provided to access this database On standard UNIX machines configuration information such as user and group account details file systems peripheral devices host details and so on is kept in flat files usually stored in the etc directory When machines are connected in a network much of this information is duplicated in flat files on each machine On alocal area network it is possible for an administrator to maintain these flat files for each machine in the network but as a network grows this job becomes very complex and tedious and the files can become inconsistent Many UNIX vendors provide a system called NIS Network Information Service which pr
52. base Can be stored anywhere although this manual assumes they are in usr bin niutil Used to list and maintain the contents of a database niload Used to add information to the database from standard input nidump Used to dump information from the database to standard output niwhich Shows which NetInfo databases are served from which hosts This utility also shows the Internet address of the specified host nipasswd Allows users to change their NetInfo password 39 Chapter 5 Manual Configuration nigrep Search using regular expressions in a NetInfo database nifind Search for directories with given key value pairs nireport Produces a tab seperated report using multiple search keys Backup It isrecommended that the existing system configuration files are backed up before continuing with the installation etc passwd etc NetInfo does not actually change any of the information in these files but the utilities that load and unload existing information into NetInfo databases can affect these flat files Design This chapter assumes you have already designed your network You should know how your available machines are arranged in the network hierarchy and which us ers should have access to which resources Initially you should have decided which host should serve the root domain This host must be a highly available host with sufficient memory and disk space Clone servers can be added at any time Example Install NetI
53. base SYNOPSIS etc bootparams DESCRIPTION The bootparams file contains the list of client entries that diskless clients use for booting For each diskless client the entry should contain the following information name of client alist of keys names of servers and pathnames The first item of each entry isthe name of the diskless client The subsequent item is alist of keys names of servers and pathnames Items are separated by TAB characters EXAMPLE Here is an example of the etc bootparams file myclient root myserver nfsroot myclient swap myserver nfsswap myclient dump myserver nfsdump myclient FILES etc bootparams SEE ALSO nibootparamd 8 133 netinfo 5 134 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME netinfo network administrative information DESCRIPTION Neti nfo stores its administration information in a hierarchical database The hier archy is composed of nodes called NetInfo directories Each directory may have zero or more NetInfo properties associated with it Each property has a name and zero or more values This man page describes those directories and properties which have meaning in the system as distributed Users and third parties may create other directories and properties which of course cannot be described here Search Policy Virtually everything that utilises NetInfo for lookups adheres to the following con vention Search the local domain first If found return the ans
54. c Software Development Pty Ltd 146 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference niload 8 NAME niload load UNIX format file into NetInfo SYNOPSIS niload v d p t format domain DESCRIPTION niload loads information from standard input into the given NetInfo do main If format is specified the input is interpreted according to the UNIX file for mat of the same name Theallowed values for format are aliases bootparams bootptab exports fstab group hosts networks passwd printcap protocols rpc and services If r directory isspecified instead of a UNIX file format theinput isinterpreted as raw NetInfo data as generated by nidump r and loaded into directory niload overwrites entries in the existing directory with those given in thein put Entries that arein the directory aren t deleted if they don t exist in the input unless the d option is specified niload must be run as superuser on the master NetInfo server for the given domain unless one specifies the p option which allows oneto run from anywhere in the network OPTIONS v Verbose Prints a for each entry loaded a for each entry deleted UNIX formats only d Delete entries which arein the existing directory but not in the input D Prompt for the root password of the given domain so that one can run from other locations in the network besides the master t Interpret the domain as a tagged domain For example trotter network
55. ce the organisation of network data A domain can hold information about a single computer information shared amongst departmental computers or information for an entire company If information isnot found in a machine s default domain the parent domains are searched until a definitive result is obtained NetInfo propagates only the incremental changes to the database to other machines on the network Because NetInfo only updates data which has changed network traffic and hence transfer time is greatly reduced Moreover changes are propagated automatically ensuring that every machinewhich needs to be updated is updated NetInfo databases may be maintained from any machine on the network not just the NetInfo server This offers enormous benefits if a network is spread over a wide geographic area or if the server machine does not have a console Changes to the database can be made via simple command line utilities or via the graphical user interface on the NeXT NetInfo is backward compatible with both NIS and previous file based administration NetInfo inter operates fully with BIND and NIS Thus you can still use these tools if necessary allowing you to convert your network over to NetInfo gradually NetInfo NIS Flat Files Figure 1 1 NetInfo Compatibility Customisation amp Extensibility Multi platform Chapter 1 Introduction to Netinfo NetInfo provides facilities for the storage of custom information
56. cesses are normally started at boot time see the Software Installation chapter of the Installation Guide for your particular server platform for an example rc local script These two processes must be started on each host in the network Use the nips util ity if it has been loaded or any available ps program to check what processes are running One function of thenibindd daemon isto read the database directory and bind all domainsinto the hierarchy A child domain does not know its own name only its parent does therefore the parent must be alive before the child domain is bound If all domains are stored on the one machine this will happen automatically How ever in anetwork of machines the order of start up is crucial The administrator should ensure that the root domain is located on a highly avail able machine If network operation is crucial to the organisation then a clone do main should also exist 107 Example Start up Order Neti nfo Shut down 108 Chapter 7 Maintenance Suppose the following domain structure exists Figure 6 1 Start up Order In this example there aretwo machines alpha and bravo the root domain and the domain sysdev are both located on host alpha alpha and bravo both have local domains NetInfo on alpha must be started before NetInfo on bravo On alpha three domains will be bound into thehierarchy When bravo isthen started the local database will find its parent s
57. clone database is fox trot network 93 Update the master database Create the clone ch Reboot the system 94 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Clones are bound into the hierarchy by setting a serves property in the master database The value of the serves property must read clone_database tag i e self served from clone database The database address of the clone is foxtrot network Therefore the machines foxtrot directory must be updated to include the serves property network Update the network database with the following information niutil mergeprop machines foxtrot serves network machines foxtrot name foxtrot ip_address192 42 172 6 serves foxtrot local network Login to foxtrot as root and create the clone database nidomain c network alpha network This creates a database called network which is a copy of alpha network Check the following details e Check that the network nidb database was created in etc netinfo e Check that the netinfod process to serve network was started A new cloneis not available to the network until the system has been rebooted When Netlnfo is first started the netinfod daemon for each master database checks for the existence of clones If any are found it sets up tasks to propagate any changes made to the master to update the clone These tasks are only set up when the daemon is first fired up and so NetInfo must be restarte
58. commended A database is referred to by its name called its tag A database can also be referred to by its database address explained in the next section Thetag needn t bethesame for all databases serving a particular domain However it usually isthe same on all servers to simplify administration A tag can and usually does differ from the domain name One suggestion for anaming structure is as follows If the relative domain name is say sysdev give its associated database a name or tag called sysdev_db This convention distinguishes between the domain and the database but at thesametime retains the relationship between them The physical directory then has the name etc netinfo sysdev_db nidb In this manual database tags are written using bold italic type In the case of the compulsory database local domain however thetag is fixed all databases for local domains must have the tag local If the network database exists then its tag is also fixed it must be network For example aUNIX file etc netinfo local nidb must exist on each host on which NetInfo runs We can say the database with tag local is used to servethe local domain A domain does not actually exist until it is bound into the domain hierarchy Binding is specified by entering values into the database that serves the domain and is achieved when a child domain starts and contacts is parent domain Since thedomain doesn t exist yet the domain name can
59. d by setting the serves properties of the machines sub directoriesin each database to point to thefollow ing e the database that serves the current domain self e the database serving the parent e and the database serving any child domains if they exist The leaves of the domain hierarchy are the local domains serving each host which are usually the first domains to be created on the machine Local domains cannot have child domains below them Binding is a two way process that is achieved by setting the serves properties of each database The serves property must point to up to three places e Database serving current domain self e Database serving parent The root domain does not have a parent e If adomain has child domains then the parent must specify the databases which serve each of its children For each of the above both an uplink and a downlink must be created An uplink existsin achild database and points to the database serving its parent domain The downlink existsin the parent database and pointsto the database serving the child domain The downlink also gives the child domain its name The name of a domain is specified by the path it isin Figure 5 5 Domain Pathnames The root domain is called The domain served by the local database on alpha is a child of root Its full domain name is alpha The domain served by the local database on bravo is a child of r
60. d check system Create the local database Create the root user for the database Load the configuration information Bind into the domain hierarchy Test the binding 95 Check new system ch Createthelocal database Create the root user Load configuration information Bind local domain to its parent Specify parent of local 96 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Before adding a host to the hierarchy the NetInfo programs must be loaded and running See the Getting Started section for an explanation of initial requirements Check that the following exist Processes nibinddl ookupd Directories etc netinfo The local database must exist on each host and its name is fixed as local Login to delta and use the nidomain tool to create the database nidomain m local e Check that the etc netinfo local nidb directory is created the net infod process started and the default information loaded into the database Create a root user in the local database on data This user is the only one able to make changes to the database and must exist niutil creat t delta local users niutil creat t delta local users root niutil createprop t delta local users root uid 0 niutil createprop t delta local users root gid 1 niutil createprop t delta local users root passwd nm Configuration information can be loaded from the flat files or extracted fr
61. d in order to use a new clone You can also kill and restart the nibindd processes on both machines to achievethe same result Example Add a New Host Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Add a New Host to the Network Each host that uses NetInfo must havea local domain This domain is usually named after the machine and is served from a database which must be called local A host does not have to be bound into the network in order to run NetInfo it can be used isolated from the network as long as it has a local database If this database did not exist NetInfo cannot run and another system such as NIS or the flat con figuration files would have to be used to configure the machine This section explains the steps involved in setting up the local database on anew host If you have read directly from the Getting Started chapter you will notice that the same information is covered This example adds a new host to the network and binds it into the hierarchy asa child of the root domain The following diagram shows wherethe connection ismade This example assumes that the root domain is served from the machine alpha and that this machine has been bound into the hierarchy Thelocal domain for delta is served from a database called local on delta Figure 5 11 Adding a Host Steps The following actions must be performed in the specified order to create and bind in thelocal domain for the new host 1 Login to delta as the superuser an
62. d into this property home The value of the home property determines the users home direc tory The value of this property must be a valid UNIX pathname shell The shell property determines the user s login shell The value must be the pathname of a valid UNIX shell program 55 machines Directory 56 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Superuser The following subdirectory must exist in each domain to create a superuser ac count users root The root user must have user id uid property set to 0 and group id gid property set to 1 The machines directory contains information about what hosts the domain has access to Each domain must know about its parent domain and its child do main s There must bea subdirectory within machines for each host that stores a database for the current domain for its parent or for any of its child domains When a database is created one entry is created in the machines directory it cor responds to the name of the host on which the database is created For example to create a domain sysdev served from a database called sysdev_db on host alpha the following command is issued whilst logged into alpha nidomain m sysdev_db This command creates a database called sysdev_db This database is created with the following directory entries machines alpha name alpha determined from the name of the host ip_address 192 42 172 1 determined fro
63. d only be backed up as often asthe NISmaps and the flat files are Standard configuration information can always be dumped from NetInfo into the flat files using the nidump utility It is recommended that this be done for consistency as these files are consulted during boot time Security Changes to the database can only be made by a user with root privileges uid 0 Therefore all programs and the NetInfo database files must be owned by root It is recommended that the root user have read write and execute privileges to the programs and database files and that all other users have read and execute privilege only Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features This chapter documents the additional features provided in the Enterprise Edition of NetInfo Some of these features such as hostname acquisition and automatic host addition are also available in the Workgroup Edition In order to better support large networks of NEXTSTEP workstations the NetInfo Enterprise Edition includes additional tools and has been modified to improve server performance The additional features provided are Readall proxies RFC 1048 support NetInfo domain aliasing Host name acquisition Automatic host addition Support for diskless NEXTSTEP workstations Support for Multi homed servers Performance enhancements 111 112 Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features Readall Proxies The master can fork a child process to respond to a clone s read
64. directories of the di rectory given on the command line see Examples Multiple values of a property are printed in a comma separated list The domain argument can be specified as an absolute or relative domain name The domain argument can also be specified as a network address or host name and tag if it is preceded by the t option OPTIONS t Specify domain as a network address or hostname and tag EXAMPLES o nireport software duck users name uid passwd root 0 ONNGzihc9ILeg nobody 2 X agent S daemon uucp SS news sybase RW NO o Oo FB k FR me 0 DJJ KMEC OgIY o nireport t crow network machines name ip_address serves crow 129 18 10 221 network crow local robin 129 18 10 216 robin local raven 129 18 21 6 network raven local duck 129 18 10 210 duck local AUTHOR Marc Majka NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd 150 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference niutil 8 NAME niutil NetInfo utility SYNOPSIS niutil opts create domain path niutil opts destroy domain path niutil opts createprop domain path propkey val niutil opts appendprop domain path propkey val niutil opts mergeprop domain path propkey val niutil opts insertval domain path propkey val index niutil opts destroyprop domain path propkey niutil opts destroyval domain path propkey val niutil opts renameprop
65. dures documented in the Installation chapter of this Guide these programs have been installed in your usr etc directory When a NEXTSTEP workstation tries to boot as a diskless workstation it first downloads an image of the Mach kernel via the trivial file transfer protocol tftp 1C In order to determine the host to load this kernel from and the file that contains the kernel it makes a broadcast request looking for a BOOTP server nibootpd responds by looking up the Ethernet hardware address of the requesting workstation and returning the IP address hotsname and kernel file name found in Neti nfo Hence you must ensure that you have updated the boot ptab information in NetInfo as well as following the instructions herein See the earlier section on Hostname acquisition for a description of the bootptab file and NetInfo support After determining its hostname and IP address the workstation then uses the bootparams protocol to determine the NFS server it should mount its root and private filesystems from This information is provided by the nibootparamd server and is also stored in NetInfo for ease of administration nibootpd and nibootparamd obtains this information from the machines directoriesin the NetInfo database by looking up the directory with the same name as the NEXTSTEP workstation that wishes to boot diskless nibootpd reads the en_address and boot file properties as diScussed earlier in the section on Hostname Acqui
66. e any existing domain not necessarily the root domain For this example we will install the server as a child of the root domain which is served by the host alpha The Quick Start install is automated by the script quick_start provided as part of the NetInfo software product Example The new host bravo must have a local database Its parent is the root domain on host alpha alpha network bravo bravo local alpha alpha local Figure 2 1 Install new server bravo The configuration steps for installing a server are 1 Install the NetInfo software as described in the Installation Guide for your spe cific platform Become superuser root Run the quick_start install script Test the system Reboot and test OF Ss Od IS 1 Load the Netinfo Software 2 Become the super user 3 Run thequick_start installation script quick_start Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start You must first complete the software installation procedures documented in the Installation Guide for your specific platform Become the superuser root and change to the working directory The quick_start script provided as part of the NetInfo software product automates many of the steps required to create a NetI nfo local database In particular it automatically creates the etc netinfo directory and installsa new local database local nidb into this directory It starts the NetInfo daemon processes requi
67. e database alpha local The result shows that there is only one subdirec tory machines alpha niutil read t alpha local machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves local This command requests a list of properties and values of the directory machines alpha in the database alpha local The result shows that the domain self is served from database local Create root user Create a root user in the database This user is the only one able to make changes to the database and must exist niutil create t alpha local users niutil create t alpha local users root These commands first create a users directory then a subdirectory for the root user Now create properties and values corresponding to the password file The name property is set to the name of the directory The user id and group id are compulsory The password must be set to null initially niutil createprop t alpha local users root uid 0 niutil createprop t alpha local users root gid 1 43 5 Create the network database ch Create root user 6 Bind local and network Specify parent of local Specify child of network Chapter 5 Manual Configuration niutil createprop t alpha local users root passwd The network database serves the root domain Its name is fixed as network Use the nidomain tool to create the database nidomain m network e Check that th
68. e directory and file is created etc netinfo network nidb collection e Check that the net infod process is started netinfod network e Check the default information automatically loaded into the database This information is similar to that created for the local database niutil list t alpha network 1 machines niutil read t alpha network machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network This shows that the domain self is served from database network Create a root user in the database This user is the only one able to make changes to the database and must exist niutil create t alpha network users niutil create t alpha network users root niutil createprop t alpha network users root uid 0 niutil createprop t alpha network users root gid 1 niutil createprop t alpha network users root passwd Binding is a two way process that is achieved by adding serves properties to the ap propriate databases Both the uplink child specifying parent and the downlink parent specifying child must be entered The local domain local must specify its parent e The root domain network must specify its child The parent of local the root domain is served by the network database on host alpha Add a valueto the serves property of the machines alpha directory of the database alpha local specifying that the parent is served from database net work niu
69. e from charlie to bravo Change the binding from root to the admin domain on bravo Change the binding from admin to the local domain Remove the domains on charlie and disconnect it from the network This example involves three hosts alpha charlie and bravo The database on charlie stored in the subdirectory etc netinfo admin_db nidb must be copied across to the host bravo retaining the same name Make sure that the files in this directory are copied as well Use any available remote copy utility to do this Theroot domain network database must be altered to reflect the change in hosts As admin was served from charlie the network database would have had a machine charlie entry This is no longer required Its child admin is now served from host bravo so anew machines entry has to be created Create the downlink root to admin niutil destroy machines charlie niutil create machines bravo niutil createprop machines bravo ip_address 192 42 172 3 niutil createprop machines bravo serves admin admin_db 101 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Create the uplink admin to root As the binding has changed you will have to use the tag instead of the domain name The machiney alpha subdirectory will have to be created niutil destroy t bravo admin_db machines charlie niutil create t bravo admin_db machines alpha niutil createprop t bravo admin_db machines alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1
70. each entry in the users subdirectory a colon delimited line is written to standard output Theload and dump utilities can also be used to copy information from one Neti nfo database to another Of course there should be no need to copy password information from one database to another In general if two domains require similar password information then it should be loaded in the parent database Thedump and load commands can be used to copy information such as services data from one local domain to another as follows nidump services alpha niload services bravo 87 Host Configuration Information 88 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Managing Hosts Hosts are the major resources in the network Each host must havea local database before it can be bound into the network hierarchy The information in the databases serving the domains on each host determines who has access to the host When NetInfo is running the system first consults the NetInfo databases for con figuration information Before users can access a host certain information must be made known The following information if it exists must be installed into a database before it can be used in the NetInfo network The information need not exist in all local da tabases it can be loaded into a mid level parent database or even into the root da tabase for access by all other domains This information can be extracted from the UNIX flat files using nilo
71. ectory 22 root domain 16 19 20 31 33 39 107 root privileges 110 root user 43 44 49 96 rpc 45 90 132 S search 10 serve 18 server 24 33 clone 91 database 24 master 29 91 server edition 121 server clone propagation 121 serves 23 37 43 49 54 56 60 serves property 44 49 50 services 45 90 132 shell 55 103 shut down 108 slash 19 start up 107 order 107 subdirectories 22 superuser 13 31 39 54 55 56 access 31 accounts 55 system administrator 13 T tag 21 37 43 49 54 153 tftp 118 The 132 tools 39 132 netinfod 110 132 nibindd 107 110 132 nidomain 54 59 110 133 nidump 59 86 110 132 nifind 133 nigrep 133 niload 59 86 110 132 nipasswd 110 134 nireport 133 niutil 54 59 62 110 133 niwhich 110 133 niypd 107 132 two level domain 26 U uid 55 103 UNIX 9 14 file system 19 uplink 44 49 73 133 user 43 49 54 103 105 maintenance 108 management 31 property 55 user account 22 utilities 39 vV values 133 WwW WAN 14 wide area network 14 workstation edition 121 write access 24 writers property 24 Y ypcat 46 129 ypmatch 129 yppasswd 130 ypserv 123 124 125 ypxfr 130 Index 163
72. ed be started niypd will not work until after the config uration information has been loaded If you are following theseinstructions niypd is not started until the system is rebooted Normally nibindd must be started before niypd These two processes are started at boot time Detailed information on these two processes can be found in the Ref erence chapter Login as the superuser and enter the following command usr etc nibindd amp Chapter 5 Manual Configuration 4 Create the The local database must exist on each host and its name is fixed as local local database Login as root to alpha and use the nidomain tool to create the database nidomain m local e Check that the directory is created VA etc netinfo local nidb This directory should contain one file collection e Check that the netinfod process is started Use nipsif it is loaded which should display netinfod local e Check the default information automatically loaded into the database Use the niutil tool to display a list of directories and properties niutil list t alpha local 1 machines This command requests a list of subdirectories of the root directory in the database specified using the tag alpha local The result shows that there is only one subdirectory machines which is assigned directory number 1 niutil list t alpha local machines 2 alpha This command requests a lis of subdirectories of the directory machines in th
73. ed group id users a list of values each of which is a user who isa member of this UNIX group 135 136 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference The directory machines contains directories which refer to individual machines The relevant properties are name ip_address en_address serves bootfile bootparams netgroups the name of this machine This property can have multiple val ues if the machine name has aliases the Internet Protocol address of the machine This property can have multiple values if the machine has multiple IP addresses Note that the address MUST be stored in decimal dot notation with no leading zeroes the Ethernet address of the machine Note that the address MUST be stored in standard 6 field hex Ethernet notation with no leading zeros For example 0 0 f 0 7 5a is a valid Ethernet address 00 00 0f 00 07 5a is not a list of values each of which isinformation about which NetIn fo domains this machine serves Each value has the format do main name domain tag The domain name is the external name of the domain served by this machine as seen from this level of hierarchy The domain tag is the internal name associated with the actual process on the machine that serves this information the name of the kernel that this machine will use by default when NetBooting alist of values each of which isa Bootparams protocol key value pair For example root eastman has the Bootparams
74. embers of the root domain A 3 level domain structure is required as follows Figure 2 2 Domain Structure 17 Example Domain Access Netinfo Database 18 A Chapter 2 Concepts When a host needs to find information for example a login id it first looks in its local domain If it doesn t find the information it then looksin its parent domain if there is one and continues looking up the hierarchical tree until either the information is found or the root domain is reached User Access using the above structure Admin and Sales Staff in this department will be registered as users in the admin domain They can login to host charlie only System Development Development staff will be registered as users in the sysdev domain They can then login to either alpha or bravo General Managers All users who are general managers should be registered in the root domain This means they can login to any machine in the hierarchy Superuser The superuser whoselogin id must be root should also be registered in the root domain so that they too can login to any machine The superuser must also be registered in the local domains This is so that should the domain tree break dueto machines being down or disconnected from the network root can still log in Domain information is stored in a NetInfo database Netinfo does not use or change the flat files directly e g etc passwa but information from
75. epartmental domain and access to the machines in that domain only Managers or other users who require access to all machines must be registered in the root domain Multi Level Thereisno limit to the depth the hierarchy can take The structure depends entirely Domain Hierarchy on how the machines and users are organised In practice however it is advisable to keep the hierarchy broad and shallow Example i f 8 Consider three departments at a large university Computing Engineering and Multi Level domains Mathematics Each department has connected their own machines into local net works Users within each department share information but not much informa tion is shared between the different departments They all wish to be connected in order to exchange electronic mail and news as necessary but the machines of each department must be kept separate Currently each department has a similar domain hierarchy The following exam ple shows the Computer Science Department 27 Example Multi Level domains 28 Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Figure 3 3 Multi Level Domain All Computer Science students have login names registered in the students domain only They have access to machines charlie and delta Academic staff are registered in academic The have exclusive access to the machine bravo but also they areable to access all machines in the child domain students that is charlie and delta Ad ministrative st
76. er Science alpha network Physics I delta network Figure 5 9 Separate N works In this situation there are two database files called network on hosts alpha and delta If a new root domain was created on a new host there could be a third file called network created though this would be very confusing If on the other hand the new root domain was created on one of the existing hosts which is more likely at least one of the network files will have to change its name It is recommended that only one network database ever existsin a network There fore in order to connect two networks some database files have to be renamed and hence some serves properties have to be altered The new structure with the root domain on alpha is as follows alpha network compsci physic alpha compsci_db alpha physic_db Was the database Was the database alpha network delta network Figure 5 10 Joining Existing Networks Rename old network database files A Create new network database Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Changes required for joining two networks e Rename the old network database files on each host e Create anew network database on alpha e Update the binding to the CompSci sub network All second level domains now third level whose parent was served from the Compsci network will have to be changed Update the binding to the Physics sub network All second level domains now t
77. erarchy This provides a mechanism to allow access to some resources and to keep others private A domain typically has access to all the resources in its child domains and in those domains lower than its children Using set terminology achild domain isa subset of its parent Thedomain hierarchy is structured like an inverted tree At thetop of thehierarchy is the root domain represented by a slash The leaves of the domain tree are the local host domains Example Domain Structure Chapter 2 Concepts Each host must havea local database called local If amachineis not connected to the network then the local domain also serves as the root domain If thereisa separate root domain it must be called network ACME has three organisational divisions e System Development with two machines alpha and bravo e Sales and e Administration sharing one machine called charlie Domain Organisation Each host must have a local domain which takes the name of the host alpha bravo and charlie These three domains are the leaves of the domain hierarchy Two abstract domains must be created to allocate the machines to the separate divisions e admin As Sales and Administration share a machine they must also share a domain sysdev Create a system development domain which has access to the two machines The General M anagers however must be able to access information in all sections and so they would be m
78. ess 192 42 172 1 serves network This database has tag network on host alpha Its database address is alpha network Once it is bound into the domain it will serve the root domain and will have the domain name Deleting Databases Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The nidomain tool is used to delete databases as well as create them Use the de stroy option to delete a database Login as root to the host on which the database is stored nidomain d some_db This example removes the directory and database files etc netinfo some_db nidb nidomain will also stop the netinfod process When adatabaseis deleted the domain it serves must be removed from the domain hierarchy This means that the serves property of its parent domain and any child domains must be adjusted This is explained more fully in the section Managing Domains 61 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Managing Database Directories The niutil program is used to manipulate information in the database Databases can be altered by specifying them using the database tag with the t option or by using the domain name if the domain exists A domain does not exist until it is bound into the hierarchy so much of the database information can only be manipulated using the tag Directory Three niutil options are relevant to database directories eddi niutil t p 1 Aist domain path niutil t p create domain path niutil t p destroy domain path If u
79. ets up tasks to ensure that any changes that are made to the master are also made to the clone as the changes occur master property Theroot directory of every database has a master property The value of this prop erty specifies the database address of the master database If this property refers to itself then the database is a master if it refers to another database then it must be aclone For example check the master property of the root domain on alpha niutil read t alpha network master alpha network Or using the domain name niutil read master alpha network This indicates that the database serving the root domain alpha network is a mas ter database A clone of this database with tag network served from host foxtrot has the follow ing master property niutil read t foxtrot network master alpha network 91 92 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Creating a Clone When acloneiscreated the entire master database is copied to the new host When acloneis bound into the hierarchy changes made to the master are automatically copied to the clone database A master database must know what clones exist This is done using the serves property Each database has a self reference in the serves property of the machines direc tory which specifies where the self domain is served from For example the network database serving the root domain on alpha has the fol lowing v
80. eved using the createprop option only This option however overwrites any existing values and so all values need to be entered niutil createprop machines alpha serves network alpha local This option can berun using the domain name if it exists otherwise the database tag should be used 68 Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Remove Values A property and all its values can be removed from a directory using the destroy and Properties prop option If a value but not the entire property needs to be removed use the destroyval option instead Once again these options can be used with the domain name if it exists or else the database tag Adding and removing property values niutil mergeprop machines alpha serves delta local niutil destroyval machines alpha serves delta local Adding and removing properties Create an arbitrary property with no values niutil createprop machines alpha new_prop Remove the new property niutil destroyprop machines alpha new_prop If any values existed for this property they of course would be removed 69 Names and Binding Example Domain Pathnames 70 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Managing Domains A domain only exists when it is bound into the domain hierarchy There are two stages to creating a domain e create the database e bind the domain into the hierarchy Database creation is explained above Binding is achieve
81. f the following format host key valuekey valu bravoroot alpha private alpha next_area private An example bootparams file was installed in your etc directory by the install_netinfo script niload can be used to read abootparams file as follows niload bootparams lt etc bootparams This command causes niload to read all the entriesin the file etc bootparams and create bootparams properties for each and every host name encountered in the root domain 119 120 Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features Support for Multi homed Servers NetInfo Enterprise Edition provides explicit support for servers that have more than one active Ethernet interface This support is for the most part invisible to the user in that it has been implemented as internal enhancements in the NetInfo server software However one of the enhancements made has a special use which can ease configuration for some customers Broadcasthost and 255 255 255 255 Support has been added for the special broadcast token 255 255 255 255 If a host is specified with this address NetInfo will broadcast on all available Ethernet interfaces when attempting to find the given host on the network Thisis useful in the particular case of specifying the host which serves the parent domain of a given domain For example if the following entry existsin the local database machines broadcasthost name broadcasthost ip_address 200 e209 U290
82. file bootptab isthe traditional UNIX file used for managing BOOTP information and contains lines of the following format hosthtype haddr iaddr boot file bravol 00 00 0f 01 0d dc 192 42 172 2 mach An example boot ptab file was installed in your etc directory by the install_netinfo script niload can be used to read abootptab file as follows niload bootptab lt etc bootptab This command will cause niload to read all the entriesin the file etc bootptab and create en_address and boot file properties for each and every hostname encountered The entries will be made in the root domain You can also add these properties using niutil niutil createprop machines bravo en_address 0 0 f l d dc where the entry is also to be made in the root domain The boot file property is used during diskless booting to identify the file which contains the image of the NeXT kernel mach See the section on support for diskless workstations for more information 115 How Automatic Host Addition works Information stored in Neti nfo 116 Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features Automatic Host Addition Another feature provided by the Enterprise Edition of NetInfo issupport for NeXT s technique for adding new NEXTSTEP workstations to a network As described above under Host Name Acquisition a NEXTSTEP workstation can be configured to acquire its host name and IP address from a NetInfo based server on the network
83. files The second parameter is the name of the default bootfile A line beginning with marks the end of the parameter section The remainder of the file contains one line per client interface with the information show below The host nameis also tried as a suffix for the pootfile when searching the home directory e g bootfile host For 10M B Ethernet htype is always 1 host htype haddr iaddr bootfile tcl0lg 1 02 60 8c 06 35 05 36 44 0 65 seagate OPTIONS d The d flag enables debugging output FILES etc bootptab en address boot file and bootparams properties of the machines hostname directory in NetInfo AUTHOR Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO niload 8 nidump 8 niutil 8 netinfo 5 Bootstrap Protocol BOOTP RFC 951 Croft and Gilmore 141 nidomain 8 142 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME nidomain NetInfo domain utility SYNOPSIS nidomain l hostname nidomain m tag nidomain d tag nidomain c tag maste remotetag DESCRIPTION The nidomain utility is an interface to nibindd 8 to which it sends all of its requests about the domains served on a given machine It also can be used to create and destroy NetInfo databases The nidomain utility will allow oneto create multiple levels of NetInfo hier archy but it is not a particularly easy way to do it One should use the Net Info Manager application for setting up multilevel hierarchies OPTIONS l
84. fo Two daemon processes must be running on each host in order to operate using the NetInfo database nibindd and niypd These processes should run in the back ground Initially only nibindd need be started niypd will not work until after the config uration information has been loaded If you are following theseinstructions niypd is not started until the system is rebooted Normally nibindd must be started before niypd These two processes are started at boot time Detailed information on these two processes can be found in the Ref erence chapter Login as the superuser on host bravo and enter the following command usr etc nibindd amp The local database must exist on each host and its name is fixed as local Login as root on bravo and use the nidomain tool to create the database nidomain m local Check that the directory and database file are created etc netinfo local nidb collection e Check that the netinfod process is started Use nipsif it is loaded which should display netinfod local Create root user 5 Bind local and network Chapter 5 Manual Configuration e Check the default information automatically loaded into the database Use the niutil tool to display alist of directories and properties niutil list t bravo local 1 machines This command requests a list of subdirectories of the root directory in the database specified using the tag bravo local The result show
85. for the master to respond the change was made though because it s in the master s request queue Rather than just hanging on the request when readall proxies are used the master will be able to handle the request If the request is a write of some sort the master will reply with NI_MASTERBUSY RFC 1048 Support nibootpd is now RFC1048 compliant it can return netmask router log host if the machine loghost exists and DNS configuration information to clients that support the RFC1048 extensions such as Windows NT To enable this configure the NetInfo directories locations resolver locations router locations ntp and machines as per the following example First do the resolver entries this format is the same as required for DNS in NS3 3 replaces the etc resolv conf file niutil create locations resolver niutil createprop locations resolver domain pcp ca niutil createprop locations resolver nameserver XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX Now for the router entry This is specific to the RFC1048 bootpd niutil create locations router niutil createprop locations router address XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX Put the netmask info in the machines entry also RFC1048 bootpd specific niutil createprop machines netmask 255 255 255 0 Create the entry for the time server Chapter 8 Server Edition Features niutil create
86. gh careful design the administrator can e create the correct load balancing of systems e enhance system performance e provide access and restrictions to resources such as printers and tape drives e provide users with access to required information and applications This chapter gives the administrator an overview of available networking alterna tives It does not offer specific solutions to network configuration and equipment requirements It is addressed to those administrators who have not already de signed their network If you have used NetInfo before you may wish to skip this chapter 25 Two Level Domain Hierarchy Example Two Level 26 Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Dividing a Network into Domains When designing a network the administrator must decide what resources are to be shared and with whom and which resources must be kept private By organising the network into conceptual domains resources can be shared or restricted as re quired NetInfo domains imply a hierarchical structure This type of structure allows re sources to be organised so that access permissions can be easily granted or denied to groups or individual users The domain structure takes the form of an inverted tree Often the domains will beset up to mirror the hierarchical structure of an or ganisation There are two issues which can affect how a network is structured location of the systems and the resources that have to be shared Locat
87. ha domain name alpha database alpha local has the following machines entries machines alpha serves local metwork This entry is saying For domain alpha served by database local on host alpha its self is served from database with tag local on machinealpha machines alpha aon Its parent is served from database with tag network on machine alpha machines alpha The local database on bravo domain name bravo database bravo local has the following machines entries machines alpha serves network machines bravo serves local This entry is saying For domain bravo served by database bravo local its self is served from database with tag local on machine bravo machines bravo aon Its parent is served from database with tag network on machine alpha machines alpha 57 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Example Propertiesof machines The root domain served from database alpha network has the following database directory machines entries machines alpha serves network alpha local machines bravo serves bravo local This entry is saying For the root domain served by database alpha network its self is served from database with tag network on machine alpha machines alpha This domain does not havea parent It does however have two child domains On machine alpha
88. hird level whose parent was served from Physics network will haveto be changed The existing network files are stored on alpha and delta These must be renamed Once the names are changed the domain hierarchy is broken Database tags rather than domain names must be used to make the changes On alpha mv etc netinfo network nidb etc netinfo compsci_db nidb On delta mv etc netinfo network nidb etc netinfo physic_db nidb Login to alpha as the superuser and use nidomain to create a new network data base nidomain m network This new database needs two entries in the machines subdirectories machines alpha for the CompSci network and itself and machines delta for the Physics network The machines alpha directory should be created automatically as the new net work is created on this host 83 Create downlinks from new network Alter self references 84 Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The two downlinks to the old networks must be specified Use niutil to alter the serves properties The new network database should contain the following infor mation machines alpha serves network compsci compsci_db machines delta serves physic physic_db The new databases renamed from network did not have parent directories but it specified that it served itself from database network This reference must be removed compsci domain alpha compscd_db The reference to self served fro
89. hostname and IP address for the NEXTSTEP workstation from the machines directories in the NetInfo database For hosts which are configured in this fashion an extra property must exist the value of which is the hardware Ethernet address of the machine For example the host bravo has a hardware address of 00 00 0f 01 0d dc This value is stored in the machines bravo directory as the property en_address machines bravo name bravo ip_address 192 A2 VIZ 82 en_address 00 00 0f 01 0d dc serves local bootfile mach nibootpd search strategy Loading bootp information into Neti nfo Using niload ch Chapter 8 Server Edition Features When a NEXTSTEP workstation starts up nibootpd searches all the machines subdirectories in the NetInfo system for a machines host en_address property value that matches the workstation Ethernet address When it finds the matching directory it responds with the name and the Ap address properties of the directory as the host name and IP address for the NEXTSTEP workstation to use You can create the en_address properties by hand using niutil However there are two other easier alternatives e Create a bootptab format file and use niload to read its contents into Net Info or e Usethe Automatic Host Addition features described in the next section and have each NEXTSTEP workstation configure itself the first time it boots The niload command is capable of reading a boot pt ab format
90. hould have noted the hostname and the IP address of the host which is to provide your parent NetInfo domain as this information will be required during the Quick Start installation You will also need to know the IP address of the machine onto which you are installing the system If you do not already have an NetInfo network up and running you can use the quick_start_root script instead However it is recommended that you read the Manual Configuration chapter as well to fully understand what is involved in establishing a NetInfo network You will be prompted for the root password of the host that is serving the parent domain during installation Please ensure that you either know this password or have someone that does know it available during the installation process Backup It isrecommended that the existing system configuration files are backed up before continuing with the installation etc passwd etc NetInfo does not actually change any of the information in these files but the utilities that load and unload existing information into NetInfo databases can affect these flat files 33 Configuration Steps 34 Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start Quick Start Install The following example shows how to connect a new server bravo to an existing NetInfo network The server will need a local database It is connected to the existing hierarchy as a child of another domain referred to as its parent domain This domain can b
91. indd 8 and should not be run manually FILES etc netinfo domain_tag nidb where the actual information served is stored AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO netinfo 5 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nibindd 8 NAME nibindd NetInfo binder SYNOPSIS nibindd DESCRIPTION The nibindd daemon is responsible for finding creating and destroying Net Info netinfod 8 servers When it starts up it reads the directory etc net info for directories with the extension nidb and starts up a netinfod 8 server for each NetInfo database it finds If nibindd is sent a hangup signal SIGHUP it kills all running netinfod processes and rebinds the NetInfo do main hierarchy note that this does not affect the connections established by niypd 8 This is useful for getting the system to conform to new network configuration changes without rebooting nibindd writes a file with its proc ess ID number pid file in etc nibindd pid The nibindd daemon will automatically destroy the registration for a net infod server if it disappears for any reason It will take the netinfod servers down if it is shut down by sending it a terminate signal SIGTERM nidomain 8 is the user interface to nibindd AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO netinfod 8 nidomain 8 139 nibootparamd 8 140 Chapter 10 Netinfo
92. inding has not worked an error message is displayed saying that the database served by the specified domain cannot be opened Information that is normally stored in the configuration files must be loaded into the NetInfo network before the configuration data can be accessed This informa tion need not be stored in every database A local domain inherits information from its parent thelocal database is first consulted but if the required information isnot there NetInfo searches up the hierarchy until it is found Some administrators may choose to load configuration information into the root domain in this case the information is stored only once niload can be used to transfer this information according to the specified format Loading information from flat files This example shows the configuration information loaded into the root domain from the flat files using the domain name The commands can be entered in any order niload v passwd lt etc passwd niload v hosts lt etc hosts niload v services lt etc services niload v protocols lt etc protocols niload v group lt etc group niload v rpc lt _ etc rpc niload v fstab lt etc fstab 45 9 Reboot and Test 46 Chapter 5 Manual Configuration niload adds information to the specified database in this case the database that serves the root domain called network If an entry exists in both the database and input
93. ines i e thosethat are configured for high compute transaction throughput preferably a high per formance disk server No domain can be bound into the hierarchy until it has found its parent The host which serves a parent domain s must be alive before its child domains can start up A clone should be established if the organisation requires uninterrupted NetInfo service and the resources are available The resources required include a host with enough memory and disk space to serve the cloned databases Any database other than those serving the local domain can be cloned A clone must exist on a different host than its master The first database you should consider cloning is the network database which serves the root domain This databaseisthe parent of the hierarchy If it isnot alive no domain can be bound into the hierarchy Reliability If ahost is down or a domain cannot be connected for any reason the clone data base is used instead of the inaccessible master database This ensures that the Net Info service is not interrupted If the network is not connected users can only login to hosts if they are known to the local database If NetInfo is not running at all they can connect to a host if they have a valid entry in the flat password file Clone databases however cannot be modified if the master server is down This ensures that there is only one source of domain information Load Balancing Clones can als
94. ion into the database User account information must be entered in subdirectory called users For each user who has access to the resources of the domain a subdirectory must exist with the same name as the user s login name The subdirectory can have the following properties name The compulsory directory name must correspond to the users login name passwd The value of the password can be left null uid Each user must have a unique user identification number gid Each user must belong to a group Thegroup identification number must exist in the group subdirectory real_ name The user s real name can be entered home The value of this property is a UNIX file system directory specifying the user s home directory shell The value of this property should be the full pathname of the user s login shell program The users subdirectory can be automatically loaded with information from the flat file etc passed using the niload utility Domain Access If a user has an entry in a domain then that user can access all its child domains 103 Example Creating user accounts Example Creating accounts in the root domain 104 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Two users chris and Io must be able to login to the system development ma chines alpha and bravo These two machines are both members of the sysdev do main therefore the users should be registered as valid users in this domain Login to the host which serves the
95. ion of Systems Some systems are located in different cities states or even countries A separate domain is often created for a system at a location This system may include several machines and is usually managed by the one systems administrator This domain can be further divided into lower level domains if required Sharing Resources If a group of users need to share particular resources such as printers and tape drives or applications and information they are often grouped together into a domain Resources can also be restricted in the same way A two level structure will suit many organisations At the top is the root domain The next level contains the local machine domains A local domain of a host can not have child domains below it Two levels is the least number of levels that are of practical use Figure 3 1 Two Level Domain Thistype of structureis only useful for small companies with afew machines Host access is commonly restricted to one host or all It is difficult though possible to organise access on only some of the hosts A user must have an account on each machine they wish to access Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Three Level Domain Larger organisations may want to divide their network administration along the Hierarchy same structure as their organisation This structure will need at least three levels Example Three Level Cr Figure 3 2 ThreeLevel Domain Users will have accounts in a particular d
96. k and downlinks by updating the serves properties in the databases serving the self parent and child domains This example creates a non local domain called sysdev which isa child of the root domain and the parent of the local alpha domain This new domain should be served from the database file sysdev_db The following structures show the initial and the final domain hierarchies Figure 5 6 Inserting Domains into the Hierarchy This example inserts the domain sysdev between the existing structure which means that the current binding must be changed All domains in the example are served from databases on host alpha Therefore only one machines subdirectory is required in any of the databases Steps Thefollowing actions should be performed in the specified order to create and bind in thenew domain You must be logged into alpha as the superuser to make these changes Create the database sysdev_db Remove the existing binding between and alpha Bind the domain to the parent parent is the root domain served from the network database Bind the domain to its child domain local domain on alpha which was pre viously called alpha Create a Database Remove Previous Binding Bind to Parent Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The name of the database which serves the sysdev domain is called sysdev_db Use nidomain to create the database nidomain m sysdev_db A database with the address alpha sysde
97. key root and Bootparams value eastman alist of values each of which isthe name of anetgroup of which this machine is a member Thedirectory mounts contains directories which refer to filesystems Therelevant properties are name dir type opts passno freq the name of the filesytem For example dev od0a or east man the directory upon which this filesystem is mounted the filesystem type of the mount a list of values each of which is amount 8 option associated with the mounting of this filesystem pass number on parallel fsck 8 dump frequency in days Thedirectory networkscontains directories which refer to Internet networks The relevant properties are name address the name of the network If the network has aliases there may be more than one value for this property the network number of this network The value MUST bein dec imal dot notation with no leading zeroes Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference The directory printers contains directories which refer to printer entries The rel evant properties are name thenameof theprinter If the printer hasalias this property will have multiple values Ip sd etc the names of printcap 5 properties associated with this printer If the value associated with the property name is numeric the number has a leading prepended to it The directory protocols contains directories which refer to transport protocols
98. ks will have more than one host The following example shows how to connect a second host to the network The second host must have a local data base It is connected to the existing two level hierarchy as a child of the root do main Most of the steps here are the same asin the previous example There is no need to create another root domain The new host bravo must have a local database Its parent is the root domain on host alpha alpha network alpha bravo al pha local bravo local Figure 4 3 Install 2nd Host The configuration steps for installing a second host are Load the software onto your system refer Installation Guide Create directory structure for the NetInfo databases Start the NetInfo daemon Create local database Bind local into existing domain hierarchy Test the network Load system information Reboot and test OO OY OT ABS Ja E 47 1 Load the NetInfo Software 2 Create the Directory Structure 3 Start the Netinfo daemon 4 Create the local database ch Chapter 5 Manual Configuration The NetInfo programs must be installed on every host that is part of the NetInfo network See Step 1 of the previous example NetInfo expects to find its databases in a directory called etc netinfo This di rectory must exist before a domain can be created on any host Check that this directory exists before continuing If not it must be created and owned by root mkdir etc netin
99. l machines 2 bravo 9 alpha This command requests a list of subdirectories of the directory machines in the database bravo local niutil read t bravo local machines bravo name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves local This command requests a list of properties and values of the directory machines bravo in the database bravo local The result shows that thedomain self is served from database local Check that the parent binding has also been correctly installed niutil list t alpha network machines 2 bravo This command requests a list of subdirectories of the directory machines in the database alpha network The result shows that the subdirectory machines bravo does indeed exist niutil read t alpha network machines bravo name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves bravo local This command requests a list of properties and values of the directory machines bravo in the database alpha network The result shows that the domain bravo is served from database local as desired The property value in the parent database serves bravo local is where the child domain gets its name This property states that a domain with the name bravo relative to the current domain is served from a database with tag local In our example the full pathname of this domain is bravo 37 4 Test the Network 5 Reboot and Test 38 Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start The domain hiera
100. l database for its own data but also accesses data in parent databases up the hierarchy To preserve this concept of local data you must create a new NIS domain for each of your machines that is private to that machine only For example say you have an existing NISdomain abc com au All of your machines are currently located within this domain and therefore draw their NIS data from it The NIS database is served by the ypserv process running on your central server machine alpha To moveto NetInfo you would need to usethe domainname command to change the domain name on each and every machine that is to become a NetInfo client The simplest way to do this is to use the hostname as the first part of the individualised domain name For example The machine alpha in abc com au has its NIS domain name changed to alpha abc com au Having done this you can then run the niypd process on alpha instead of ypserv and niypd will start up as though it were the NIS server for the domain alpha abc com au Each machine that you run niypd on will be similarly configured 123 Example Example 124 Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Using NIS as well as Netinfo Since niypd emulates NIS calls for a given localised domain the question arises of how to get your local machine to still use NIS as a backup That is if alookup query cannot find matching data in NetInfo you would like it to somehow continue the query in the old NIS system
101. link sc a a a aeee e a an aaka i iaa 34 Configuration Gens 34 Manual Configuration ssssssssssseennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn nnna a 39 Netlnto ProQrarm anes eaei a ae aa kA iaaeaie 39 GT WEE 40 IR Le EE 40 Install NetInfo on the First Host 41 Loading information from flat Tee cece ceeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeetenaeeeeeeaaes 45 Loading information from NI 46 Directory N t enge ege ege a a EE aR Ee ae a aa aaaea 46 Install NetInfo on Other HOSS cee cceeecceeeeeeeeeeeecaeeeeteeaeeeeeeeaaeetenaeeeeneaes 47 USING Netinto cecccseseeeessensnneneceeeeeeeeeeesenseeaenaeeoeeeeeeeeseesessuesenaeeoeeoeseeeseesenseessaaas 53 Database and Domain FUNCtIONS 0 cc eee eeeeneeeteeeeeeteeaeeeeeteaaeeteaeeeeteaaes 54 Compulsory Database ah tele up ele EE 54 Directories MR RI e gel 54 SUP RUSS EECH 56 MACHINES Director 56 Managing Databaeee uk 59 Naming Databaeee AAA 59 Directory and Files c 0 6 8 nent ai i aiaa Eai i eatea aaaea 59 Process netlnfod ue 60 Database tte uf pel E 60 Deleting Databases 2 0 0 cece eecneeeeeeeneeeeeteaeeteeaaeeeeesaaeeseeeaaeaeeaaeeeeeeaaas 61 Managing Database Directories ccecceecceceeeeeeeeeeeecaeeeetecaeeeeeteaeesenaeeeeteaes 62 Directory Management O EOS a A Se ica h tis Gene tecetetd 62 Display Directory Information 63 Create Directory Information cccceeeeecceeeeeeceeeeetetaeeeeeeeaeeeeeaeeeete 64 Delete Directory Information 65 Managing Properties ceeeee
102. m network network must be changed to the new database name compsci_db niutil destroyval t alpha compsci_db machines alpha serves network niutil mergeprop t alpha compsci_db machines alpha serves compsci_db physic domain delta physic_db The reference to self served from network network must be changed to the new database name physic_db niutil destroyval t delta physic_db machines al serves network niutil mergeprop t delta physic_db machines del serves physic_db Bind to new parent Reset binding to child domains Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The parent of the new domains isthe new root domain Thisinformation hasto be added may have to add the appropriate machines directories Create uplinks renamed networks to new network compsci domain alpha compsd_db niutil mergeprop t alpha compsci_db machines alpha serves network physic domain delta physic_db niutil mergeprop t delta physic_db machines alpha serves network In the CompSci network two domains sysdev and admin specify their parent as being served from database network on alpha Thisin no longer true the parent is now served from file compsci_db on alpha Similarly for the Physics network child domains sysad and adm should specify their parents as physic_db on data Each of these domains already has a parent which should be destroyed and the new v
103. m the host file serves sysdev_db self is served from database sysdev_db Properties of machines A subdirectory of the machines directory has three properties created automatically name The name of the machine must be the host name This becomes the name of the subdirectory ip_address Each machine must have a unique Internet address serves The serves property has one or more values The values have the form domain tag where domain is either the self the parent or the do main name of a child This is the point at which the parent de termines the name of a child domain This directory can have many other properties used by the system These are ex plained in full in the Reference chapter Example Propertiesof machines database directory Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Suppose a network iscomprised of two machines alpha and bravo which arelinked together in a two level hierarchy Each system has a local domain the parent of which is the root domain located on host alpha Three domains must be created On alpha create a local database called local whose parent the root domain is served from a database called network also located on alpha Host bravo also has a local domain and it isthe child of the root domain The do main hierarchy is as follows alpha network alpha bravo alpha local bravo local Figure 5 2 Two Levd Domain Hierarchy The local database on alp
104. main D Do not output any information at all Useful to probe a binding to make sure it has come up correc tly EXAMPLE niwhich d outputs host information for the host that serves the parent of the local do main AUTHOR Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO niutil 8 netinfo 5 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference niypd 8 NAME niypd NIS emulation server SYNOPSIS niypd V d D 1 domain_name DESCRIPTION niypd is a server process that provides information to any process that makes calls to the NIS client side routines Such processes include any process that uses the standard libc calls such as getpwent gethostent etc and also the special tools ypcat and ypmatch provided as part of the standard NIS distribution niypd emulates the equivalent process ypserv by providing an RPC call compatible interface Rather than consulting map files as ypserv does however niypd draws its data from NetInfo databases Communication to and from niypd is by means of RPC calls Lookup functions are described in ypcint 3N and are supplied as C callable functionsin lib libc niypd is capable of using data from NIS databses as well as NetInfo through support for the concept of a parent NIS domain All NIS derived data will appear AFTER NetInfo data in ypcat ypmatch or other queries If the domain_name parameter is not provided on the command line the parent domain is derived by removi
105. manage domains and databases including create and delete databases and bind domains e Managing Hosts This section explains how to add move and delete hosts from a network Host management is achieved using the database and domain functions of the previous section e Managing Users and Groups Once hosts have been connected to the network users can be given access using the database and domain functions 53 Compulsory Database Information Directories users Directory 54 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Database and Domain Functions A domain isan abstract concept which enables the administrator to group resourc es together for access by specific users Information about a domain is stored in the database from which it is served Domains exist dynamically in the system When the system is started usually at boot time the NetInfo daemon searches the etc net info directory for databas es and binds the domains they serve into the hierarchy The hierarchy is deter mined by the serves properties of the machinesin each database A domain does not know its own name this is determined by its parent It is pos sible for a domain to havea different parent If for example one host is unavaila ble another may be used to link the domain hierarchy The database on this new host may act as parent to those on another but it may access them using different names Normally this is transparent to the users Two tools are used t
106. mation from etc passwd is loaded into the passwd di rectory by niload This directory containsasubdirectory for each known user with the following properties and values user name user s password can be set to null unique user identification number group id of default group text field containing user information can be null pathname of UNIX home directory pathname of UNIX shell program Contains printer capabilities entries Information from etc printcap is loaded into the print ers directory by niload This directory contains a subdirectory for each known printer with the following properties and values name of printer and aliases there must be a property for each printcap option required Contains the protocol name database Information from etc protocols isloaded into the proto cols directory by niload This directory contains a subdirectory for each known protocol with the following properties and val ues main name as well as any aliases protocol number Contains the readable names that can be used in place of therpc program numbers Information from etc rpc isloaded into the rpes directory by niload Thisdirectory contains asubdirectory for each known rpc program with the following properties and values name given to program program number Contains the service name database Information from etc services isloaded into the servic es directory by niload Thisdirectory containsasubdirectory for
107. me a eae In this manual UNIX file system pathnames are written using the courier type face For example the flat file containing password information is represented as etc passwd 19 Domains Hostname D atabase Internal Names Database Physical FileName 20 Chapter 2 Concepts Domains are also organised in a hierarchy The root domain is called Its child domains are named similarly to the UNIX filesystem with the slash character used as a separator In this manual domains are written using boldface type For example the full name of the sysdev domain created in an earlier example is sysdev This domain was created with two child domains alpha and bravo sysdev alpha and sysdev bravo Domains can be referred to using relative dot notation The parent is referred to as and a domain can refer to itself using a single dot For example the parent domain of sysdev alpha whose absolute domain name is sysdev can be referred to from the alpha domain as From sysdev sysdev alpha can be referred to simply as alpha Each machine or host must have a unique name In this manual host names are written using italic type For example the host names of the three machines used in examples so far are as follows alpha bravo and charlie A NetInfo database which serves a domain has an internal structure that isa directory hierarchy Info
108. me of the file system pathname of directory on which to mount the file system filesystem type mounting options interval in days between dumps the fsck 8 pass in which to check the partition Contains information about user groups Information from etc group is loaded into the groups di rectory by niload This directory containsasubdirectory for each known group with the following properties and values alias name group password can be set to null unique group id the user name of each user who is a member of the group Contains information about known hosts Information from etc hosts isloaded into the machines di rectory by niload This directory containsasubdirectory for each known host or machine with the following properties and val ues main host nameand aliases Can contain morethan one valueif the machine has alias names unique Interne address Contains the network name database Information from etc networks is loaded into the net works directory by niload This directory contains a subdirecto ry for each known network with the following properties and values main network name and any known aliases network number 89 90 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo File Format passwd name passwd uid gid realname home shell printcap name options protocols name number name number services name port protocol Description Contains information about user accounts Infor
109. n called List the properties which describe the machines in each of these databases niutil read alpha machines alpha niutil read machines alpha If the binding has not worked an error message is displayed saying that the database served by the specified cannot be opened 97 Example Move host 98 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Move a Host to a Different Domain This section explains how to movea host from one domain to another Thelocal database for the host already exists so all that is required isto changethe bindings to the parent domain A host must bea leaf node of the hierarchical tree therefore there are no child domains to rebind This example moves the host bravo from the sysdev domain to the admin domain Figure 5 12 Moving a Host After the host bravo is moved from the sysdev domain to the admin domain the structure is as follows alpha network sysdev admin alpha sysdev_db charlie admin_db alpha bravo charlie alpha local bravo local charlie local Figure 5 13 Movinga Host Only two steps are required 1 Break the old link binding bravo to sysdev 2 Create a new link binding bravo to admin This example involves three hosts alpha for domain sysdev charlie for domain admin and the host being moved bravo Remove old binding Bind to new parent Chapter 6 Using Netinfo This is a two way process break the uplink in the local database and then break the downlink
110. nal directory structure of a database is created using the niutil tool The create option creates the specified directory of the specified database The database can be named using the domain name if it exists or the database tag The new directory bravo must be added to the root domain asa subdirectory of machines Use the create option as follows niutil create machines bravo and check niutil list machines 2 alpha 3 foxtrot 6 bravo Add the new directory bravo niutil create t alpha network machines bravo and check niutil list t alpha network machines 2 alpha 3 foxtrot 6 bravo Delete Directory Information Using the domain name Using the database tag Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Theinternal directory structure of a database is removed using the niutil tool The destroy option deletes the specified directory of the specified database The database can be named using the domain name if it exists or the database tag Theold directory foxtrot must be removed from the root domain asa subdirectory of machines Use the destroy option as follows niutil destroy machines foxtrot and check niutil list machines 2 alpha 6 bravo Remove the old directory niutil destroy t alpha network machines foxtrot and check niutil list t alpha network machines 2 alpha 6 bravo 65 Example Managing Database Properties 66
111. nes and properties for the root domain served from alpha network niutil list t alpha network machines 1 alpha VA 2 charlie 9 delta alpha niutil read t alpha network machines alpha serves network sysdev sysdev_db charlie niutil read t alpha network machines charlie serves admin admin_db delta niutil read t alpha network machines delta serves demos demos_db Use niutil to check current machines and properties of the demos domain served from ddta demos_db must be logged in as superuser on delta t delta demos_db machines niur last 2 alpha 1 delta alpha niutil read t delta demos_db machines alpha serves sysdev_db delta read t delta demos_db machines delta demos_db delta local niutil serves Use niutil to check current machines and properties of the admin domain served from charliefadmin_db niutil list t charlie admin_db machines VA 2 alpha 1 charlie alpha niutil read t charlie admin_db machines alpha serves sysdev_db charlie niutil read t charlie admin_db machines charlie serves admin_db charlie local 80 Remove link from old parent Reset binding for local database Chapter 6 Using Netinfo As the domain is being removed only the downlink from the parent root has to be altered Remove the downlink niutil destroyval machines delta serves demos demos_db
112. nfo information associated with a directory is not stored in files but in either of two places in subdirectories or in the directory itself in the form of properties A property is made up of two parts the property key which can be thought of as the property s name and the property value A database can have any number of subdirectories Each subdirectory can have zero or more properties and each property can have zero or more values The NetInfo database begins at the top level with a root directory represented by a slash Some subdirectories and properties are compulsory in order to administer NetInfo These are explained in detail as required in Chapter 5 Using NetInfo Information about a user account is stored in a database directory called users For each user who access to the resources of the domain there must bea subdirectory with the name of that user The ACME company has three staff members in the Development section login id s chris bing and jo who must be registered as users in the sysdev domain The database which serves this domain sysdev_db must have the following subdirectories users chris users bing users jo The properties of a users subdirectory correspond to the fieldsin the etc passwd file These subdirectories have the following properties and values Directory users chris users bing users jo Property name chris bing jo passwd AX L Tf DS I55Tf PUI87 22 uid 101 102
113. nfo on a single host Configuration Steps Chapter 5 Manual Configuration Install Netinfo on the First Host Neti nfo is installed on a single machine in several stages The system programs must be loaded on each machine that is part of the NetInfo network Administra tors may find it easiest to install the programs onto one host and then copy them across to all others Databases however should not be copied Some NetInfo programs must be located in specific directories and the directory structure for the NetInfo databases must be created Every host must have a local database Only one network database should exist in the network In order to illustrate the NetInfo start up procedure the following example network isinstalled Both local and network databases are installed on this host to create a two level hierarchy This network initially consists of one host alpha A subsequent example explains how to connect other hosts The root domain is served by the network database on host alpha This host must also have a local database serving the local domain with name alpha alpha network alpha alpha local Figure 4 1 Install 2 Level Domain Hierarchy Load the software onto your system refer Installation Guide Create directory structure for the NetInfo databases Start the NetInfo daemon Create local database Create network database Bind local and network into domain hierarchy Test the network Load
114. ng NIStools Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Since niypd emulates these maps you can usethe standard NIS management tools ypcat and ypmatch to dump data from Netlnfo For example ypcat passwd passwd data from all sources This command will use niypd to dump out all of the password data first the local data and then the data all the way up the NetInfo hierarchy followed then by any password data from the parent NIS domain Remember niypd falls through to NIS if it can t find data to resolve a query and in the case of ypcat the query is asking for all data until there is no more to tell Similarly ypmatch allows you to find a keyed record in the combined NetInfo NIS databases Neti nfo is searched first in all cases For example ypmatch john passwd passwd record for user john If you re ever unsure about which record will be found first ypmatch will give you the definitive answer Thisis particularly useful when you havea duplicated record in higher levels of the NetInfo database but havea local definition to override the common definition ypmatch allows you to confirm which record is being found first 127 128 Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Caveats Installation Because Netlnfo queries work through the NIS lookup mechanism it becomes necessary for you to perform the same installation as you would for NIS before installing NetInfo Even if you don t want to use NIS following your NetInfo i
115. ng the first component of the local domain name eg if the local domain is alpha xyz com then the parent domain will be xyz com If the domain_name parameter is supplied on the command line it will be used instead Finally if the domain_name parameter is the special token local then niypd will NOT make calls to the underlying NIS system for parent lookups This allows a systems administrator to clearly separate those systems administered by NetInfo from those using NIS You cannot run niypd and ypserv on the same host 155 156 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference OPTIONS AM Show version of the software d Turn on verbose debugging output D Do not detach and daemonize process Logging is to standard output l Override system default location of ypserv log file domain_name Either local to override NIS fall through or an actual NIS domain name to use as a parent domain Omitting this parameter causes niypd to derive the parent domain using the approach above NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO ypserv 8 ypbind 8 ypinit 8 netinfo 5 Index Symbols nidb 18 59 19 20 21 22 57 aliases 137 etc 9 13 115 etc fstab 45 etc group 45 etc hostconfig 114 116 etc hosts 45 etc netinfo 18 31 35 42 48 54 59 60 107 132 etc netinfo local nidb 43 48 59 collection 43 48 etc netinfo local nidb collection 36 etc passwd 45 etc protocols 45 etc
116. ng under the UNIX operating system access the information in the NetInfo database if it isrunning by accessing anew NIS server process niypd that emulates the NIS server ypserv NIS must be configured so that all NIS lookup queries generated by software on the local machine go first to the new server process This technique works in two steps as follows e run the NetInfo server process niypd on the local machine e configurethelocal machine so that NISlookup queries generated by software go first to the new server process Installation isa matter of replacing the existing NIS server process ypserv with the provided process niypd The supplied startup script does this at boot time by creating a symbolic link from usr sbin ypserv to usr etc niypd Example Chapter 9 NIS Emulation Ensure NIS domains are correct The key to this technique working is that you must also set up your NIS domain names correctly niypd emulates NIS server routines to enable the UNIX environment to make NISlookup calls as if they were NIS lookups For this to work correctly you must ensure that the local machine is a member of a NIS domain of one that is itself only Thisis necessary to provide for the conceptual mapping of NetInfo domainsto NIS domains NIS is inherently a non hierarchical system where many machines all draw their data from a single NIS database NetInfo provides a fully hierarchical database system where each machine has a loca
117. not be used The database itself however can be referred to using a database address A database address is made up of two components the host nameand the database tag separated by a slash In this manual database addresses are represented using bold italic type with the slash separator For example the local domain on host alpha is served from a database with the following address alpha local Using the recommended convention explained above the domain sysdev on host alpha is served from a database with the address alpha sysdev_db In order for a domain to access information in a database a process must be started The controlling NetInfo process the nibindd daemon is usually started at boot time and must be running for NetInfo to operate Once nibindd is running it starts up anetinfod daemon for each existing database in the etc netinfo directory on the host on which the database is stored The daemon processes are owned by root and run in the background As domains are created new instances of the netinfod daemon are started These processes stop when a domain is removed or the nibindd daemon is stopped 21 Internal Structure of the Database Example Directories and Properties 22 Chapter 2 Concepts The database is organised internally into directories and subdirectories The NetInfo directory structure is very similar to the UNIX file system but the two should not be confused In NetI
118. nse eeeenaeeeeeecaaeeneaeeeeneaes 10 Distributed Administration ceceeessseececeeesesneeececessesssneeeeeesssssnneeeeeeess 10 Backwards Compatibility ssessssessssssssssrrsssrrssrirnssinnseinnnninnsnnnnnntnnnnennn 10 Customisation amp Exvtenslbility 11 IG e Ee te EE 11 Netinfo Concept scssssssseecceeeeeeeeeeesessnesneaeeoeeeueeeeseesensenseeaeeoeeoeeeesseeseneeesseaas 13 UNIX ele lie E GC Le EEN 13 Configuration PUGS erect WS EE 13 Networks and Distributed Gwstems ua 13 NetlntohNetworks nenn 14 MAS NCR SE EE 14 Netlnfo Addreeeee 1 15 Neti nfo Administration 16 DOMAINS vests aaa teenie Shae SANE auaias 16 Netlnfo Database ccccccccssccccssessssnneeeeeeeescneeeseeeessesesssaeeeesssessaaeeeseess 18 Binding Domains and Databases ccececcceeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeteaeeeeneaes 19 Naming Copnventions nn 19 Daemon PFOGESSES st es aaa e E E a aAa aaa a Deedee ee eieiei 21 Internal Structure of the Databaee AA 22 Changing Database Information sssssssssssrrssrissssrrrssrrrrserrrnnsrinsrrrnnsnsns 24 Writers Property AANEREN 24 Master Servers and CIONGS sssssssisssserisssrrrssriissrirrsstinnseinnnennnntnnnnnnnn annen 24 Netinto DeSIGI me eE A T 25 Dividing a Network into Domans 26 Multi Level Domain Hierarchie 27 Selecting Ke Le CC 20 Domain EE EE 31 Managing E KEE 31 Updating the Flat Plet 32 Configuration QUICK Start EE 33 Installation DEE 33 Contents BackUp EE 33 QUICK Start Stal
119. nstallation you must still install your operating system options to provide for NIS support Also you should be careful to ensure that you do thethings necessary to cause your operating system to make NIS lookup calls in the first place For example you must ensure that you add theinfamousNIS linesto the end of the password and groups files This is the magic token that NIS relies on in order for it to be invoked when query for password or groups Also on certain systems DEC UNIX and Solaris 2 x for example you must also configure the etc svc conf file to specify that you wish to use NIS data and the order in which data is to bea searched As with all Netinfo installations it is recommended that you only keep the bare minimum number of entries in any of your etc files and that you put all other data in NetInfo Functions which are not required or make no sense in the NetInfo environment such as ypxfr are not implemented by niypd You can safely disable these processes yppasswd You should use the new tool nipasswd to change users passwords in NetInfo The standard yppasswd tool that works for NIS installations uses special NIS protocols that are not supported by this release of the NetInfo emulation system Search order The search order using NIS Emulation is different from the search order documented in previous NetInfo Edition technotes and differs from the search order currently used in the SPARC Edition of NetInf
120. o In these earlier lookupd based Editions the search order was NetI nfo first followed by the flat files followed by NIS In the NIS Emulation based versions of NetInfo where data would normally come from NIS it comes from NetInfo followed immediately by NIS Thus if you configure etc svc conf to search local files then NIS you will get local files NetInfo NIS as the search order Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference TheReference Section provides manual page entries for the N etInfo programs These programs are also stored on line and can be accessed using the man utility The following programs are described e bootparams 5 e netinfo 5 e netinfod 8 e nibindd 8 e nibootparamd 8 e nibootpd 8 e nidomain 8 e nidump 8 e nifind 1 e nigrep 1 e niload 8 e nipasswd 1 e nireport 1 e niutil 8 e niwhich 1 e niypd 8 129 130 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference Overview of Netinfo Programs The following command line tools operate on the NetInfo database The databases must be located in the etc net info directory NetInfo is running when the nib indd and niypd daemon processes are running Normally these processes are start ed when the machine is booted Daemons There are several daemon processes associated with NetInfo nibindd Thenibindd daemon must be running on each host in order for Neti nfo to be used If thisdaemon isnot running then the UNIX system will use NIS yellow pages if NISis running If no
121. o be used to establish the best load balance of a network A host will search for information locally before attempting to search the network If aclone is established on alocal host it will obtain information from the clonerather than the master database elsewhere in the network Unique Names User Access Superuser Local Users Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Domain Names The database tag for a domain must be unique on a machine When adomain is created no matter at what level it will be bound into the hierarchy a data base file is created and stored in etc netinfo All database files are stored at the same level and so the names must be unique on a particular host Extending the multi level example above the Math and Engineering depart ments may also wish to divide their domains further into an admin and academic domain structure As each department is organised on a different set of machines the same names can be chosen for the lower level domains At each level within a domain and on each host the names must be unique Managing Users To login to any machine a user must have an account NetInfo determines user ac cess by looking up information in the domain hierarchy rather than using the flat files When a user tries to login to a particular host NetInfo first looks in the local database for that host If the username is found the ordinary login process is continued If not NetInfo searches up through thehierarchy until
122. o create and manage database information nidomain creates and deletes databases niutil manages databases directories and properties niwhich can be used to display domain and database details Two other tools niload and nidump are used to move information between NetInfo and other systems Some information is compulsory in all databases specifically some directories must exist and some subdirectories must contain certain properties Each host in the network must havea local database This database must be called local Thenameof thelocal domain isthe same asthe host nameof the machine on which it is located For example the local domain on host alpha whose parent is the root domain has thedomain name alpha It is served from the database with the tag local and has the database address alpha local The local database is the only compulsory one A host need not be connected to other machines in order to run NetInfo If however a hierarchy of domainsis generated the top level domain the root domain must be served from a database called network There are several directories that must exist in every database Each database must have a users directory Users who require access to the do main served by the database must havean entry in thisdirectory Access is achieved by creating a sub directory with the same name as the user s login name For example to create a superuser account create a subdirectory called users
123. o sysdev niutil mergeprop machines alpha serves sysdev sysdev_db This specifies that the parent knows its child domain by the name sysdey and it is served from database sysdev_db on host alpha A domain never knows its own name only its parent knows it The new domain must now be bound to its child domain Two steps are involved here 1 Current domain must specify its child downlink Update the sysdev_db da tabase by adding a new value to the serves property which specifies that the child domain alpha is served from the database local on host alpha This da tabase can only be updated using the database address alpha sysdev_db as the domain does not yet exist Add the downlink sysdev to alpha niutil mergeprop t alpha sysdev_db machines alpha serves alpha local 2 Child domain must specify the new domain sysdev as its parent The child domain has database address alpha local Add the uplink alpha to sysdev niutil mergeprop t alpha local machines alpha serves sysdev_db Note Overwriting and Adding Information Thecreateprop option of niutil creates a property with the specified values It over writes any other values that may already exist The addval option adds a property value to an existing property key without over writing other values The property list should be checked before changes are made to ensure the connections remain correct The destroyval option removes
124. o this directory giving the IP address of the host alpha niutil createprop t alpha local machines bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 The property value in the parent database serves bravo local iswherethe child domain gets its name This property is saying a domain with the name bravo relative to the current domain is served from a database with tag lo cal The full pathname of this domain is bravo 6 Test the Network 7 Load System Information 8 Reboot and Test Chapter 5 Manual Configuration The domain hierarchy can be tested by interrogating the database using the do main name rather than the address On bravo there is one database local which serves the domain bravo On alpha there are two databases local which serves alpha and network which serves the root domain List the properties which describe the machines in each of these databases niutil read bravo machines bravo niutil read bravo machines alpha niutil read machines bravo niutil read machines alpha niutil read alpha machines alpha If the binding has not worked an error message is displayed saying that the database served by the specified domain cannot be opened Configuration information must be accessible to each host A host will consult its local database first If the appropriate configuration information is not stored here the parent domain is consulted and so on up the domain hierarchy In the previou
125. om NIS maps if the host is running NIS See the earlier section Managing Hosts to see what information has to be loaded Binding is achieved by adding serves properties e Thelocal domain must specify its parent e The parent domain must specify the new domain as its child The parent of local is served by the network database on host alpha Add a value to the serves property of the machines alpha directory of the database alpha local specifying the parent is served from database network niutil mergeprop t alpha local machines alpha serves network Specify child of root Test the Network Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The child of root alpha network is served by the local database on host alpha Add a value to the serves property of the machines alpha directory of the data base alpha network specifying the child is served from database local niutil mergeprop t alpha network machines alpha serves alpha local Since a domain does not exist until it is bound into the hierarchy it cannot be re ferred to by its domain name only its database tag The previous interrogations of the database properties all made requests using the database tag t option of niu til Thedomain hierarchy can betested by interrogating the database using the do main name rather than the tag The local database serves a domain on host alpha The full name of this domain is alpha The network database serves the root domai
126. onfiguration Quick Start chapter provides an alternative to the Manual Config uration chapter for those customers with existing NetInfo installations The M anual Configuration chapter assumes that the reader does not already havea NetInfo based network and must therefore start from scratch The chapter entitled Using N amp lInfo guides users through the NetI nfo functions and utilities in detail The Server Edition Features chapter provides details of the additional features in the Server Edition that provide for automatic host addition diskless booting and host name management It also discusses the optimisations and extended networking support provided in the Server Edition TheNIS Emulation chapter provides further technical details on the technique that NetInfo uses when installed on a UNIX system The Reference chapter contains manual page entries for all supplied tools Administrators should refer to their system manuals for information specific to their installation This manual describes how to useNetInfo only it does not advise on system or network configuration This manual describes how NetInfo inter operates with other services such as NIS and BIND however it assumes administrators are familiar with these services If readers are not familiar they should consult the relevant system documentation supplied with the products vii Terms and Conven tions viii Preface UNIX Commands A All UNIX commands
127. oot Its full domain name is bravo Example Domain Name Chapter 6 Using Netinfo If another domain is inserted between the local and root domains say sysdev then the leaf domain on alpha would have the full domain path name sysdev al pha A domain does not know its own name It must know which database it is served by but the name is generated by the downlink in its parent database Suppose a database is created on host alpha using the following command nidomain m sysdev_db Thiscommand creates a database sysdev_dbon host alpha which thereforehasthe database address alpha sysdev_db The domain name will exist when it is bound into the hierarchy and will be specified by a serves property value in its parent database Suppose this database is to serve a domain called sysdev which is the child of the root domain also located on alpha In the root database network the machines alpha directory must be updated with the following value of the serves property sysdev sysdev_db Thefirst part of the above line givesthe domain its name and the second part spec ifies the database it is served from We know it islocated on host alpha asthis value is assigned to the machines alpha subdirectory 71 Example Create sysdev 72 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Insert a Domain A domain only exists when it is bound into the domain hierarchy The first step is to create the database Then create the uplin
128. ost configuration files are kept in the etc directory This includes the password file etc passwd which containsalist of all users who are able to use the system Other files such asthe groupsfile etc group contains information about what groups exist and which users are members The hosts file etc hosts stores information about the name of a host and its Internet address There are many other files which are used by the system to determine its configuration These files are all flat or ASCII files and must exist in order for the system to run successfully When machines are connected in a network much of this information is duplicated in flat files on each machine NetInfo manages theinformation normally stored in these flat files in the NetInfo database A network is an interconnected collection of computers i e those capable of exchanging information It allows resources such as hardware information and services to be shared amongst the users of an organisation A distributed system is one in which the computing functions are dispersed among several physical computing elements U sers don t need to be aware of where information or services are physically located in this type of system A distributed system can be considered a special case of a network The term network in this document refers to networks which include distributed systems 13 Network Types and Setup Neti nfo Networks The Internet 14 Chapter
129. ot domain is served by the network database on host alpha The local database on bravo does not havea machines alpha directory and the network database on alpha does not havea machines bravo directory These must both be created 49 Specify parent of local Specify child of network Naming the child domain 50 Chapter 5 Manual Configuration Login as root on bravo Create a machines directory in order to specify the parent serves property niutil create t bravo local machines alpha Add a value to the serves property of this directory specifying that the parent is served from database network on host alpha niutil addval t bravo local machines alpha serves network Add a property to this directory giving the IP address of the host alpha niutil createprop t bravo local machines alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 This ensures that the NetInfo database bravo local knows the IP address of the parent host aplha and is thus able to bind to it correctly on startup The parent database must specify that it has a new child bravo Login as root on alpha Create a machines directory in order to specify the child serves property niutil create t alpha network machines bravo Add a value to the serves property of this directory specifying that the child is served from database local on bravo niutil addval t alpha network machines bravo serves bravo local Add a property t
130. ovides tools to manage UNIX system configuration files across a network NIS distributes information maps in their entirety to all NIS servers on a network as required For small networks thisis adequate however as a network grows these map files also grow and the time delays incurred during data transfer become unproductive Currently NIS is available on a range of UNIX based machines NetInfo allows system administrators to manage the administrative information of a heterogeneous network of UNIX based machines It is 100 compatible with NetInfo for NeXT systems and provides for complete integration between NeXT and non NeXT computers In this manual the name Neti nfo is used to refer to NetInfo Editions as well as for NetInfo on NeXT machines Hierarchical Domains Fast Automatic Propagation Distributed Administration Backwards Compatibility 10 Chapter 1 Introduction to Netinfo Implementation NetInfo is a database of network administration information for a network of computers running under the UNIX operating system A set of command linetools is provided to access this database if necessary however most database access is made through system calls NetInfo provides administrators with the following key features Information stored in NetIlnfo databases can be organised into domain hierarchies Just as directories on disks greatly enhance the organisation of large numbers of files NetInfo domains enhan
131. r the serves property to specify the database from which itself is served its parent and its one child on alpha machines alpha Property Value name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves sysdev_db network alpha local In the machines bravo subdirectory only one serves value is required to specify the child located on bravo machines bravo Property Value name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves bravo local The above example shows the structure of the sysdev domain only Its parent the root domain must have a reference that sysdev is its child Also the local bravo domain must havea reference to its parent 23 Changing Database Information Master Servers and Clones 24 A Chapter 2 Concepts Normally only root superuser has write access to information in the NetInfo databases Users can be granted permission to change the values of specific properties or variables by applyingthe writers property In order to change their own password users must have writers access to their own password property writers Property The writers property has oneor more values The values arelogin names of those users who are able to write to the property or directory There are two forms writers This form allows users named in the list of values to write to all properties in the directory writers propkey This form allows users named in the list of values to
132. rchy can be tested by interrogating the database using the domain name rather than the address On bravo there is one database local which serves the domain bravo On alpha there are two databases local which serves alpha and network which serves the root domain List the properties which describe the machines in each of these databases niutil read bravo machines bravo niutil read bravo machines alpha niutil read machines bravo niutil read machines alpha niutil read alpha machines alpha If the binding has not worked an error message is displayed saying that the database served by the specified domain cannot be opened At this stage reboot the system and check that all the daemons started successfully Check that the binding is correct by interrogating the database using the domain names instead of the database tags As a final confidence check try a common command such as bin ls 1g This command must look up user id and group id information using NetInfo Check that the results are what you would expect This completes your NetInfo installation for the local server Neti nfo Programs Programs Compulsory Location Utilities Can be stored anywhere Chapter 5 Manual Configuration Your Netlnfo package includes an Installation Guide that describes how to unload the software from the distribution media and what files should exist The superus er root must have acce
133. red to use the NetInfo system It also binds the new database into your existing NetInfo hierarchy and can optionally load the contents of the system configuration files etc hosts etc passwd etc into the local database for you quick_start requires you to enter the root password of the host alpha during installation This is required to allow changes to be made to the parent NetI nfo database running on host alpha You may be asked for this password more than once quick_start_root does not requirea parent Neti nfo database sinceit is establishing the new root database Ignore any references to parentdatabase in the following if you are running quick_start_root The quick_start script requires four parameters on the command line e thedomain name that the new local domain is to be known by e the database address of the parent domain e the IP addresses of the server e the IP addresses of the host that serves the parent domain For example to set up the new server bravo we would invoke quick_start as follows quick_start bravo 192 42 172 2 alpha network 192 42 172 1 where bravo is to be the domain name of the new database The parent domain is served from the database network on host alpha The first IP address provided is the address of the new server bravo The second IP address provided is the address of the host alpha 35 loading configuration data 36 ch Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start Following
134. rise the NetInfo system Some NetInfo programs must be located in usr etc Other utility programs are stored in locations at the discretion of the administrator though usually in usr bin A backup of all these programs should be made initially Program Directory Notes nibindd usr etc Netlnfo daemon must be running on all hosts niypd ausr etc NIS Emulation lookup daemon must run in conjunc tion with netinfod netinfod usr etc For each databasein the etc netinfo directory an instance of the netinfod daemon is started This dae mon is used to access the specified database nidomain usr etc nidomain is used to create and destroy databases When creating a database it also starts a netinfod proc ess to access the database niutil usr bin niutil lists and maintains the contents of a database niload usr bin niload adds data to the database from standard input nidump usr bin nidump dumps data from the database to standard output nipasswd usr bin nipasswd allows users to change their own password niwhich usr bin niwhich shows which NetInfo hosts are served from which databases This utility also shows the Internet address of the specified host All NetInfo administrative information is stored in directories within etc netinfo on each host in the network Each subdirectory here must be backed up on a regular basis It is up to the administrator to decide on the backup strategy Generally these files nee
135. rk addresses and hostnames It allows a system administrator to change the hostname and IP address of any NEXTSTEP workstation centrally using NetInfo rather than by editing configuration files stored on each and every workstation in the network This facility isimplemented through the BOOTP protocol and the associated server processes nibootpd 8 and nibootparamd 8 By following the installation procedures documented in this Guide the necessary software will have been installed for your server to provide this service to NEXTSTEP workstations When a NEXTSTEP workstation boots it checks the file etc hostconfig to see whether it has a fixed hostname and IP address specified If the etc hostconfig file specifies that the hostname and IP address of the workstation are automatic then the NEXTSTEP system will begin looking for a BOOTP server on the network providing its hardware Ethernet address as alookup key Hardware Ethernet addresses are by definition unique Thesupplied nibootpd program running on aserver will receivethe lookup request and consult NetInfo to determine the hostname and IP address of the workstation in question Thisinformation is then returned to the NEXTSTEP workstation which configures itself appropriately If the information cannot be found in Netinfo by nibootpd then the NEXTSTEP workstation will initiate Automatic Host Addition The following section describes this feature in detail nibootpd obtains the
136. rkstation as well asthe hostname and the allocated IP address removing the need to update it by hand later on nibootpd allocates the new workstation an IP address It determines which IP address to use based on two new properties of the machines directory in the server s local domain machines name machines assignable_ipaddr192 42 172 10 192 42 172 250 configuration_ipaddr192 42 172 253 These properties are properties of the machines directory itself not of a subdirectory of the machines directory You can read them by using niutil as follows niutil read machines Chapter 8 Server Edition Features The first property assignable_ipaddr has two values and describes a range of IP addresses available for allocation by nibootpd In our example the nibootpd server could allocate addresses from 192 42 172 10 through 192 42 172 250 inclusive The second property configuration_ipaddr is required and specifies the address that must not be allocated by nibootpd This address isin fact the address that NeXT uses to identify anew workstation temporarily during the boot process It should always be set to 192 42 172 253 explicitly Note that nibootpd will search the range of IP addresses specified when allocating a new address to ensure that the address chosen is not already in use These values can be set with command lines as follows niutil createprop machines assignable ipaddr 192 42 172 10 192 42 172 250 niutil crea
137. rmat See the Reference section for a full explanation of this command niload updates information if entries exist in both the database and the input file If input file entries don t exist in the database they will be added It will not delete by default any entries that do exist in the specified database but do not exist in the input file niload understands the format of the following system files aliases bootparams bootptab fstab group hosts networks passwd printcap protocols rpc services The format of the command is niload options format domain Load information from the flat password file into the sysdev domain as follows niload passwd sysdev lt etc passwd For each entry in the password file a subdirectory in users is created or updated and the properties assigned the values of the password entry nidump extracts information from a UNIX format file into the database It writes to standard output interpreting the information according to the specified format See the Reference section for a full explanation of this command nidump understands the same file formats as niload The format of the command is nidump t format domain Example Dumping Information Copying Information Example Copying Information Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Extract the password information from the sysdev domain and storeit in atem porary password file as follows nidump passwd sysdev gt tmp passwd For
138. rmation in the NetInfo into files format ted as specified niload and nidump understand the following formats aliases bootparams bootptab fstab group hosts networks passwd printcap protocols rpc services niload reads from standard input and nidump writes to standard output Informa tion can be copied easily using these tools together Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference Creating and Managing Databases nidomain niwhich nidomain is used to create and delete databases This utility does not bind the domain into the hierarchy Both the uplink to par ent and the downlink to any child domains have to be speci fied by setting the values of the appropriate properties When the create option is requested m nidomain performs several tasks e It creates a directory for the databasein etc netinfo with a database file collection e It starts an instance of the netinfod daemon e It enters some information in the database including machines directory with a subdirectory for the host on which the domain is created Three properties are created name value host ip_address value obtained from host information and serves property one property only self served from local data base In order to make changes to the database information a root user must be specified This in done by creating a users direc tory with a subdirectory for the root user The delete option removes the directory and stops the daemon proce
139. rmation is stored in the database within these directories Directories contain zero or more properties each of which can have zero or more values Each directory has a unique numeric id Internally the database also begins at a root level called The slash is used asa separator to specify pathnames in the internal database hierarchy In this manual internal database pathnames are written using bold courier typeface For example information about the users who have access to the resources in a domain is recorded in the following internal subdirectory users As another example information about the machines available to thedomain must be stored in a subdirectory of the machines directory named after the host The information for host alpha would be stored in the following internal directory machines alpha Theinternal structure should not be confused with the physical location of the NetInfo database Physically a NetInfo database is stored in a UNIX file called collection located within a UNIX directory called etc netinfo database_tag nidb As this file grows extra files are created called extension_N where is generated by the system and usually corresponds to the database directory id stored within it Database Tags Database Address Daemon Processes Chapter 2 Concepts A database serves a domain The database and domain names do not always have to be the same though some consistency in naming is re
140. root and to create an account for a user called chris create a subdirectory called users chris Inherited Information Not all users who have access to a domain need an account entry in users in all domains Users who haveaccess to a higher level domain automatically have access to all its child domains Chapter 6 Using Netinfo ener Suppose the following hierarchy exists where the domains are served from the Inherited specified databases Information alpha network sysdev admin alpha sysdev_db charlie admin_db alpha bravo charlie delta alpha local bravo local charlie local delta local Figure 5 1 Inheriting Domain Information All users with accountsin the admin domain have access to hosts charlie and delta they don t need to have users entries in the local databases as well just the root domain In casethereare any problems such as machines going down It is recommended however that the superuser has an entry in every domain not the superuser is then able to connect to any host and make changes as necessary Properties of users Each subdirectory of users must have the following properties name Login name of the user The value of this name is the name of the subdirectory passwd User s password The value of the password is encrypted uid User ID Each user must have a unique identification number gid Group ID Each user must be a member of a group real name The user s real name can be entere
141. ry users may only change their own password When changing a password nipasswd prompts for the old password and then for the new one If the old password is not entered correctly it will not be changed The new password must be typed twice to forestall mistakes nipasswd will search up the NetInfo domain hierarchy starting from the lo cal domain until it finds a password entry for a user The password is then changed at that point In other words nipasswd changes the password for a user at the lowest pos sible level of the NetInfo domain hierarchy The command will not search further up the hierarchy to change further password entries New passwords should beat least six characters long If you persist in enter ing ashorter password it will eventually be accepted Users should be warned that this may result in compromising system security NOTES Password algorithms do not work with 8 bit characters This maintains con sistency with login file naming rules which do not allow 8 bit characters in login names Seelogin 1 for explanations about why login isnot 8 bit clean AUTHOR Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO finger 1 login 1 yppasswd 1 crypt 1 passwd 1 netinfo 5 149 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nireport 1 NAME nireport print tables from the NetInfo hierarchy SYNOPSIS nireport t domain directory property DESCRIPTION nireport prints a table of values of properties in all sub
142. s example configuration information was loaded into the root do main the parent of this new domain therefore it is not necessary to load any in formation from the flat files Administrators may choose to store information at different nodes of the domain hierarchy rather than the root domain If so information may have to be loaded into the new local domain At this stage reboot the system and check that both the daemons started success fully Check that the binding is correct by interrogating the database using the domain names instead of the database tags Try acommon command such as bin ls 1g Check that the results are what you would expect This command must look up user id and group id information using NetInfo 51 52 Chapter 5 Manual Configuration Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Configuration information for each host in the network is stored in the NetI nfo da tabases The administration of hosts is based on domains These domains can be linked together to form a hierarchy A domain obtains information from the database from which it is served The da tabase information is used instead of the flat files or NIS when NetInfo is running The database must exist on one of the hosts connected to the network A domain typically has access to the resources specified in its child domains This chapter is divided into three parts e Database and Domain functions This section explains how to use the NetI nfo tools to
143. s that there is only one subdirectory machines which is assigned directory number 1 niutil list t bravo local machines 2 bravo This command requests a list of subdirectories of the directory machines in the database bravo local The result shows that there is only one subdirec tory machines bravo niutil read t bravo local machines bravo name bravo ip_address 192 42 172 2 serves local This command requests a list of properties and values of the directory ma chines bravo in the database bravo local The result shows that the do main self is served from database local Create a root user in the database This user is the only one able to make changes to the database and must exist niutil create t bravo local users niutil create t bravo local users root niutil createprop t bravo local users root uid 0 niutil createprop t bravo local users root gid 1 niutil createprop t bravo local users root passwd Binding is a two way process that is achieved by adding serves properties to the ap propriate databases Both the uplink child specifying parent and the downlink parent specifying child must be entered e local the child must specify its parent e The root domain network must specify its child As the parent and child domains are located on different hosts you must ensure that you are updating the correct database The parent of local the ro
144. s they may have rparent domain Get a server s current NetInfo parent resync domain Force master and clone servers to resynchronize databases Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference statistics domain Print server version number and database checksum EXAMPLE niutil list list the directories at the top level in the local NetInfo database AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO niload 8 nidump 8 netinfo 5 153 niwhich 1 154 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME niwhich return host information for NetInfo domains SYNOPSIS niwhich d domain p h 1 DESCRIPTION niwhich is used to determine which host serves a given NetInfo domain Given a domain name niwhich will output the hostname IP address and da tabase tag for the domain The h and i options are for convenience and are mostly useful in writing shell scripts to create new domains niwhich returns a status code to indicate success failure to contact the given domain OPTIONS d Specify domain an aon The special name refers to the local domain while the name refers to the parent of the local domain Thename refersto the root of the NetInfo domain hierarchy The full domain pathname uses as a separator h Only output the name of host that serves database for specified domain i Only output the IP address of the host that serves the specified do
145. sing the t option domain must be a database tag otherwise domain must exist Create is used to create directories and destroy will remove them list is used to display what subdirectories exist in the specified path The following example is used to illustrate the display create and delete options of the niutil tool Example A new host bravo will be added to the network to replace the host called foxtrot Managing Database which isa child of the root domain The network database is currently located on Directories host alpha The current domain structure is as follows alpha network alpha foxtrot alpha local foxtrot local Figure 5 3 Managing Database Directories The network database has two subdirectories in machines machines alpha machines foxtrot Changes A new subdirectory machines bravo must be added to the network database which serves the root domain The existing directory machines foxtrot must be removed from the da tabase as it is no longer required 62 Display Directory Information Using the domain name Using the database tag Chapter 6 Using Netinfo The list option of niutil displays the internal directory structure of the specified directory of the specified database The database can be named using the domain name if it exists or the database tag Check the current directory list of the root domain This domain is ser
146. sition Loading bootparams information into Netinfo Using niload Chapter 8 Server Edition Features nibootparamd reads the bootparams property another new property for the Enterprise Edition This property is stored in the machines bravo directory as the multi valued property bootparams For example to allow the machine bravo to boot diskless from the server alpha machines bravo name bravo ip_address T9242 VIZ 2 en_address 00 00 0f 01 0d dc serves local bootfile mach bootparams root alpha private alpha next_area private Thisentry tells nibootpd that the machinewith Ethernet address 00 00 0f 01 0d dc isnamed bravo bas lp address 192 42 172 2 and should usethe kernel image stored in the file mach This entry also tells nibootparamd that the machine bravo should mount its root file system by NFS mounting the root file system of alpha and that it should mount its private file system by NFS mounting the directory next_area private from the host alpha You can create the bootparams properties by hand using niutil if you wish niutil createprop machines bravo bootparams root alpha private alpha next_area private where the entry is made in the root domain You can also use niload to read a boot params 5 format file The niload command is capable of reading a boot params 5 format file bootparams isthetraditional UNIX file used for managing bootparamd information and contains lines o
147. ss niwhich is used to determine which host serves a given NetInfo domain It outputs the hostname Internet address and the data base tag for the domain Managing Database Information and Properties niutil The NetInfo utility program niutil is used to view create and maintain subdirectories properties and values of the domain database The list option displays a list of directories in the database cre ate creates directories and destroy renoves them read displays a list of properties and their values addval de stroyval createprop and destroyprop are used to manage the properties and values Querying the NetInfo Database nifind nigrep nireport Finds a directory in the NetInfo hierarchy It starts at the local domain and climbs up through the hierarchy until it reaches the root domain Searchs for a regular expression in the NetInfo hierarchy It searches the domain s directory hierarchy depth first starting from the root directory Prints a table of values of properties in all sub directories of the directory given on the command line 131 132 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference Passwords nipasswd nipasswd allows users to change their NetInfo password It be haves likethe UNIX passwd program it prompts for the old and new passwords and validates the change before making the al teration to the NetInfo database Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference bootparams 5 NAME bootparams boot parameter data
148. ss for each database it finds in the directory etc netinfo The example above started up the following process display using ps root 71 S 0 12 usr etc netinfo local Some information is automatically loaded in the database when it is created A machines internal directory is created with onesubdirectory that corresponds to the name of the host on which the database was created This subdirectory has three properties the name taken from the host name the Internet address extract ed from the etc hosts file and the serves property which has one value spec ifying that the self domain is served from database with tag local The above example creates the following information machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves local This database has tag local on host alpha Its database address is alpha local The name of the domain that it will serve is not known until it is bound into the hier archy Then the name is determined by the parent domain This is explained in a later section in this chapter Managing Domains The network database which serves the root domain is created using the same tool nidomain Login as root on alpha and use nidomain to create the network database nidomain m network This example creates the following directory and file structure etc netinfo network nidb collection This file contains the following default information machines alpha name alpha ip_addr
149. ss to the programs M any of the NetInfo functions require the user to be logged in as root The Installation Guide also documents the procedure you should follow to install the NetI nfo software for your system These procedures should be carried out prior to following the installation steps documented in this chapter Thissection describes how to set up theinitial host with alocal database and a root domain The NetInfo software must be installed on all hosts in the network and each must have a local database Only one root domain should exist although advanced NetInfo administrators can create multiple seperate NetInfo heirarchies as well The NetInfo system is comprised of the NetInfo daemons and several utility programs used to access the database Some of these programs are compulsory and must be located in specific directories Other utilities supplied can belocated in any utilities directory chosen by the administrator This manual assumes utilities are stored in usr bin Program Notes The following programs must be installed in usr etc nibindd Neti nfo daemon must be running on all hosts niypd N ISemulation lookup daemon must run in conjunction with nib indd netinfod For each database in the etc netinfo directory an instance of the netinfod daemon is started to access the specified database nidomain Used to create and destroy databases When creating a database it also starts a netinfod process to access the data
150. ssword property The writers property has oneor more values The values arelogin names of those users who are able to write to the property or directory There are two forms writers This form allows users named in the list of values to write to all properties in the directory writers propkey This form allows users named in the list of values to write to the specified property only The value of the writers property list of usernames can take the value This is a wildcard meaning all users of the domain The wildcard specification is generally used when defining access to printers in a domain The properties of a users subdirectory correspond to the fieldsin the etc passwd file Directory users chris Property Value name chris passwd AX L Tf uid 101 gid 10 real name Chris Smith home directory usr staff chris shell bin csh _writers passwd chris The writers passwd entry allows the user specified chris to write and there fore change the password property passwd in the directory users chris 109 Programs Compulsory Locations Utilities Can be stored anywhere Database Files 110 Chapter 7 Maintenance Backup The system administrator should ensure that a backup of the programs is kept and the NetInfo databases are backed up on a regular basis It is up to the administrator to choose their favourite backup strategy and medium Thefollowing files comp
151. t it will obtain information from the clone rather than the master database elsewhere in the network When the netinfod daemon for each database is started it first checks to see if the database is a clone or if it has any clones For each master database if any clones are found the daemon sets up tasks to ensure that any changes that are made to the master are also made to the clone The root directory of every database has a master property The value of this property specifies the database address of the master database If this property refers to itself then the database is a master if it refers to another database then it must be a clone When a master database is created this value is set to the database address of the new database When acloneis created the entire master database is copied and so the value of the master property points to the master database Chapter 3 Netinfo Design Before creating a NetInfo network you should consider how the resources of your system have to be shared amongst the users This means that you must consider how your domain hierarchy should be structured Just as hierarchical directories enhance the organisation of disk files hierarchical domains enhance the organisation of network data A domain can hold informa tion about asinglehost about a department or information about an entire organ isation Networked systems allow computer resources to be shared amongst users Throu
152. t the flat configuration files are consulted Normally this daemon is started up at boot time by an appropriate entry in therc local file niypd niypd handles requests for information from clients and passes them to nibindd It must be running in conjunction with nib indd to use information in the NetInfo database niypd is a drop in replacement for ypserv that translates NIS lookups to NetInfo lookups niypd currently does not cache requests This is planned for a fu ture release netinfod A netinfod daemon is started by nibindd for each domain known to the network hierarchy nibindd checks the etc net info directory and starts a netinfod process for each data base directory it finds netinfod is forked by nibindd It should not be started by hand at any time as nibindd handles the binding of domainsinto the hierarchy Loading and Dumping Database Information Two programs are supplied with the system in order to load information into and dump it out of the various NetInfo databases Use these tools to keep the flat files up to date with the NetInfo database in case a machine has to be run without con necting to the network niload niload can be used to load information such as password files into the database The system understands the format of the flat configuration files and loads data according to the specified for mat nidump The dump program works in the opposite way to load It copies the configuration info
153. t diagram Figure 5 8 shows the resulting domain structure Steps 1 Remove the link to old parent demos and sysdev 2 Add link to new parent demos and root Check current bindings ch Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Use niutil to check current machines and properties of the parent sysdev domain served from alpha sysdev_db must be logged in as superuser on alpha niutil list t alpha sysdev_db machines 1 alpha 5 bravo 8 delta alpha niutil read t alpha sysdev_db machines alpha serves alpha local sysdev_db network bravo niutil read t alpha sysdev_db machines bravo serves bravo local delta niutil read t alpha sysdev_db machines delta serves demos demos_db Use niutil to check current machines and properties of the demos domain served from dedlta demos_db must be logged in as superuser on delta niutil list t delta demos_db machines 2 alpha 1 delta alpha niutil read t delta demos_db machines alpha serves sysdev_db delta niutil read t delta demos_db machines delta serves demos_db delta local Use niutil to check current machines and properties for the root domain served from alpha network niutil list t alpha network machines 1 alpha 2 charlie alpha niutil read t alpha network machines alpha serves network sysdev sysdev_db charlie niutil read t alpha network machines charlie serves admin admin_db
154. t provided by NetInfo Example Setting up a Clone Select the clone details Chapter 6 Using Netinfo This example creates a clone of the network database The database is stored on host alpha and the clone is created on host foxtrot The host on which the cloneis to be created must have been connected to the net work before the clone can be created Hosts that serve clones must still have a local database and be bound into the hierarchy In this example the local database on foxtrot is a child of the root domain The structure is as follows alpha network alpha foxtrot alpha local foxtrot local On alpha the following serves properties exist for network database network machines alpha name alpha ip_addressl 92 42 172 1 serves network alpha local machines foxtrot name foxtrot ip_addressl 92 42 172 6 serves foxtrot local Steps 1 Select the host on which the clone is to be created and choose a tag 2 Update the master database specifying a serves property for the clone 3 Create the clone database 4 Reboot the system to start up the clone Before a clone is created you must update the master with information about the clone This includes the serves property that determines the clone server which is copied when the clone is created For this example the clone will be located on host foxtrot and the database will have the tag network Therefore the database address of the
155. teprop machines configuration_ipaddr 192 42 172 253 where the entry is made in the server s local domain 117 How Diskless W orkstations work Information stored in Neti nfo 118 Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features Support for Diskless Workstations In addition to the hostname and autoconfiguration features support is provided for diskless NEXTSTEP workstations and for workstations that may have a local disk but use it only for swap storage purposes To boot a NEXTSTEP workstation diskless using a NetInfo server as the disk server you must ensure that the usual procedures to allow a workstation to boot diskless from the server have been observed This includes setting up the necessary tftp 1C directories on the server stocking them with the appropriate kernel images mach for NEXTSTEP and ensuring that the required NFS mount facilities have been put in place Please see your server documentation supplied by your server vendor for details of the required configuration Diskless booting support is provided through the server processes bootparamd and bootpd bootparamd is a standard tool supplied with most UNIX systems however the standard bootparamd does not use Neti nfo based information Provided with this Enterprise Edition of NetInfo are new versions of bootpd and bootparamd called nibootpd and nibootparamd respectively These are enhanced to read information from NetInfo If you followed the install proce
156. terpret the domain as a tagged domain For example trotter network re fers to the database tagged network on the machine trotter You may supply an IP address instead of a machine name r Dump the specified directory in raw format Directories are delimited by curly braces and properties within a directory are listed in theform property value Parentheses introduce a comma separated list of items The special property name CHILDREN is used to hold a directory s children if any are present Spacing and line breaks are significant only within double quotes which may be used to protect any names that might contain metacharacters EXAMPLE nidump passwd dumps a password file from the local NetInfo domain nidump r locations dumps the locations directory of the root do main nidump t r name users uid 530 trotter network dumps the di rectory for the user whose UID is 530 RESTRICTIONS The r option is not supported by Xedoc Neti nfo Editions AUTHOR NeXT Computer Inc NON NEXTSTEP SUPPORT Xedoc Software Development Pty Ltd SEE ALSO niload 8 niutil 8 netinfo 5 143 nifind 1 144 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference NAME nifind find a directory in the NetInfo hierarchy SYNOPSIS nifind anvp t timeout directory domain DESCRIPTION nifind searches for the named directory in the NetInfo hierarchy It starts at the local domain and climbs up through the hierarchy un
157. these files can be loaded into or from the database structures Thesame sort of information that is stored in the flat files is stored in the database and used by the system to determine how the resources and users are to be administered The flat files however are used by the system at boot time and so cannot be removed when NetInfo isinstalled The password file etc passwd must contain at least an entry for root and the groups file must contain an entry for the group that root belongs to The database is physically located in a subdirectory of etc netinfo on thehost on which it was created The subdirectory is usually named after the domain with an extension of nidb The program nidomain manages the creation of the database subdirectories This program is explained in full in the Reference chapter of the manual A database is said to serve a domain that is it stores the information relevant to the domain This information includes host information such as Internet address and alist of valid users Example Database Files Chapter 2 Concepts As each machine must have a local domain then a local database must be created on each host The root domain can be served from a database on any host in the hierarchy and must be called network The sysdev and admin domains must be served from databases on any host that is part of their respective domains Suppose for this example both the root domain network database
158. til addval t alpha local machines alpha serves network The child of network is served by the local database on host alpha Add a value to theserves property of the machines alpha directory of the database with the tag alpha network specifying that the child is served from database local niutil addval t alpha network machines alpha serves alpha local Naming the child domain 7 Test the Network 8 Load System Information Chapter 5 Manual Configuration The property value in the parent database serves alpha local is where the child domain local in this case gets its name This property is saying a domain with the name alpha relative to the current domain is served from a database with tag local The full pathname of this domain is alpha Since a domain does not exist until it is bound into the hierarchy it cannot be re ferred to by its domain name only its database address The previous interrogations of the database properties all made requests using the database address t option of niutil The domain hierarchy can be tested by interrogating the database using the domain name rather than the address The local database serves a domain on host alpha The full name of this domain is alpha The network database serves the root domain called List the properties which describe the machines in each of these databases niutil read alpha machines alpha niutil read machines alpha If the b
159. til it reaches the root domain Any occurances of directory are reported by directory ID number If the optional domain argument is given then nifind stops climb ing at that point in the hierarchy The domain argument must be specified by an absolute or relative domain name When invoked with the a option nifind searches for the named directory in the entire NetInfo hierarchy or the sub tree with domain as the root if do main is specified The n option exempts local domains from the search nifind uses a default two second connection timeout when contacting a do main The connection timeout can be overriden with the t option OPTIONS a Search for directory in the entire NetInfo hierarchy n Exempt local directories from the search D Print directory contents v Produce verbose output t timeout Specify an integer value as the connection timeout in seconds EXAMPLES o nifind printers inky printers inky found in software id 202 printers inky found in id 357 nifind a machines mailhost sales machines mailhost found in sales id 234 nifind v users uid 164 users uid 164 not found in sales polaris users uid 164 not found in sales users uid 164 found in id 451 Chapter 10 Netinfo Reference nifind p machines mailhost machines mailhost found in sales id 171 name zippy mailhost ip_address 192 42 172 5 machines mailhost found in id 350 name zorb
160. tinfo Design Updating the Flat Files Flat files on each machine can be kept up to date using the NetInfo tools nidump and niload to copy information between the specified database and the file It is recommended that systems administrators update the flat files on a regular ba sis The flat files are consulted by the system when it is booted and also if neither NetInfo nor NISarerunning Thisis easily managed using the standard UNIX cron facility and the NetInfo tools All tools are explained in the Reference chapter Chapter 4 Configuration Quick Start This chapter describes an alternative NetI nfo installation procedure for those sites with existing NetInfo networks This installation is somewhat simpler than the full manual configuration process described in the next chapter Manual Configuration as it makes use of an automated installation script quick_start provided as part of the NetInfo software product If you do not already have a NetInfo domain heirarchy and wish to create a new root domain server a quick_start_root script is also provided Installation You should have already installed the NetInfo software onto your system as per Chapter 1 of the Installation guide for your specific platform This section describes how to set up your server with alocal NetInfo database You should already have a NetInfo server installation with a root domain up and running before undertaking this installation In addition you s
161. tory usingthe alias name and alias _addrs properties The former specifies the alias to which this domain will respond the latter is a series of values containing the address and netmask of clients which should be referred to this domain when the alias nameis requested Theaddress and netmask are one value separated by an ampersand amp For example niutil read t mustang network 41 master mustang network test alias_name network alias_addrs 192 42 172 0 amp 255 255 255 0 192 42 173 06255 255 255 192 This says that any requests for tag network from machines with IP addresses that match either 192 42 172 in the high order 24 bits or that match 192 42 173 0 in the high order 26 bits should get handled as if they were asking for tag network test You may want to set the restrict_multi_homed property in the root directory such that broadcasting on multihomed servers will be done properly see the multi homing section of this manual for more information on this property 113 How Hostname Acquisition W orks Information stored in Neti nfo Example 114 Chapter 8 Enterprise Edition Features Hostname Acquisition The Enterprise Edition of NetInfo provides support for NEXTSTEP workstations that need to acquire their hostnames and IP address information at boot time This is a standard feature of the NEXTSTEP workstation that allows for greater flexibility in moving equipment from place to place and changing netwo
162. transferred This allows users and companies to transfer information including electronic mail and news The physical aspect of the network connection is not relevant to NetInfo It assumes that the machines or hosts are equipped to connect into an appropriate existing network whether local wide area or public A heterogeneous network is one that is made up of machines of different architectures and vendors In general the term includes machines that arerunning different operating systems but for the purposes of this document all machines are assumed to be running UNIX NetInfo can be used on any TCP IP network The Internet is a public network available across the world It allows organisations to connect to it in order to exchange information mail and news Each machine that is part of the Internet must havea unique address The Internet address also called the IP address is a 4 byte number that is written as four numbers separated by periods The Internet address is made up of two parts e the network address es the host number Example Internet address Neti nfo Addresses Example Company Structure Chapter 2 Concepts NeXT machines are supplied with the following default three byte network address 192 42 172 Host numbers from 1 to 250 251 255 reserved can then be used to distinguish the hosts in the local network using the 4th byte For example network host 192 ADT 21 192 42 172 2 192 42 17
163. v_db now exists The domain itself to be known as sysdev does not yet exist See the section earlier for more details on creating a database The binding that connects to alpha must be removed This can be done specifically using the destroyval option of niutil and renoving the appropriate values of the serves properties Another way of removing values is to overwrite them using the createprop option Destroy the uplink in the local database niutil destroyval t alpha local machines alpha serves network Destroy the downlink in the database serving the root domain niutil destroyval machines alpha serves alpha local Two steps are involved in binding anew domain to its parent 1 Current domain must specify parent uplink Update the sysdev_db database by adding anew value to the serves property which specifies that the parent domain is served from the database network on host alpha This data base can only be updated using the database address alpha sysdev_dbas the domain does not yet exist niutil mergeprop t alpha sysdev_db machines alpha serves network Add the uplink sysdev to root domain niutil mergeprop t alpha sysdev_db machines alpha serves network 73 Bind to Child 74 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo 2 The parent domain must specify its new child sysdev This parent domain exists and has the name Add the downlink root domain t
164. ved by the network database but as the root domain exists in the hierarchy the domain name can be used niutil list 1 machines 5 users This example asks for alist of directories of the root domain from the root directo ry The two slashes are used to represent two different components the first re quests the root domain the second the root directory of the specified domain The result shows there are two subdirectories machines is directory number 1 and users is directory number 5 These numbers are generated by the system when the directories are created niutil list machines 2 alpha 3 foxtrot This example asks for alist of directories of the root domain from the machines directory The result shows there are two subdirectories alpha and foxtrot which are directories 2 and 3 respectively The above examples accessed the root domain using its domain name In this example its tag is used It is served from the database called network on host al pha therefore its database address is alpha network Check the root directory list of the network database list t alpha network machines users list t alpha network machines alpha foxtrot As can be seen the results are the same whether using the domain names or the database tags 63 Create Directory Information Using the domain name Using the database tag Chapter 6 Using NetInfo The inter
165. ves demos demos_db Example Ddeting a Domain Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Deleting Domains Administrators may wish to delete domains from the system completely If a host isno longer available its local domain should be removed from the hierarchy The hierarchy may also be restructured for somereason resulting in theneed to remove domains If ahost isremoved all domains served from that host are affected they haveto be either moved or deleted If a host serves only itslocal domain then the removal is simple only the binding between the local and the parent domains is affected If adomain other than alocal domain isremoved then bindingsto both the parent and child domains are affected There are three major steps involved in deleting a domain from the middle of the hierarchy e reset the binding from the parent reset the binding from child domains remove the database and netinfod process This exercise removes the 2nd level domain demos It does not remove the host delta from the network so the local database has to be relinked to the network In this example it is connected to the admin domain Figure 5 8 Deleting Domains Changes The link between root and demos must be removed A new link between delta and the admin domain must be created The database and process serving demos demos _db must be removed 79 Chapter 6 Using NetInfo Check current bindings Use niutil to check current machi
166. vesendetncnpeerdedtanctacncdtecdesldelsreeiuiutenemetencbeteusabecdsunveu lav evinedtiedeensscenmene 130 Netinfo Reference scs ssesecsccceeeeeeeeseesensnegeeoeeoeeeeeseeseeseasaeaeeaeeogneneeeeeeeseneans 131 Overview of NetInfo Programs 132 vi Contents BEE une EE 132 Loading and Dumping Database Information 132 Creating and Managing Databases A 133 Managing Database Information and bropertlee 133 Querying the NetInfo Database AA 133 Tele TEE 134 LR Te NOCD AE ete A acaba sade saas ena coas Ee 136 Ni DIMA 8 EE 141 NIGOMAIN 8 AAEE E TA 144 MAUMEE a a aae ana Taaa iaaa aiia 145 lge WEE 146 Allee o1 ED WEE 148 PND ASSWO LL EE 151 aleet EE 152 PV VEL GS EE 153 WHICH 1 EE 156 DU 10l APAE AE ETE E E rere E 157 WOK E T E A E E 159 Organisation Related Documents Preface This manual isa practical guideto using NetInfo It is directed towards UNIX system administrators It assumes some knowledge of the UNIX operating system but does not assume that all users are necessarily experienced at administering a network All administrators should read the Introduction and Concepts chapters at least once Those of you who have used NetInfo on NeXT machines will find most of the con cepts familiar Administrators who are experienced with NIS will find that some concepts such as domains are treated differently in NetInfo TheNetInfo Design chapter explains the philosophy behind the NetInfo domain hi erarchy The C
167. vo local Figure 5 4 Managing Database Properties The network database has two subdirectories in machines machines alpha machines bravo Changes to network The ip address property must be created with value 192 42 172 2 The serves property must be created and assigned a value that specifies bra vo local as its child domain Display Database Properties Using the domain name Using the database tag Create Properties and Values Using the domain name Using the database tag Chapter 6 Using Netinfo Directory properties are displayed using the read option of the niutil tool Check the properties of the machines alpha directory in the root domain The domain name can be used as it has been bound into the hierarchy niutil read machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network alpha local The serves property specifies that self root domain is served from a database called network and it has a child domain which it calls alpha served from a database called local As both these entries arein the machines alpha directory then the database files must be located on the host alpha Check the properties of the machines alpha directory niutil read t alpha network machines alpha name alpha ip_address 192 42 172 1 serves network Database properties can be created using the createprop option of niutil This op tion also adds values to the
168. wer Otherwise try the next level up and so on until the top of the domain hierarchy is reached For compatibility with Yellow Pages and BIND see niypd 8 Database Format Top Level At thetop level the root directory contains a single property called master This property indicates who isthe master of this database i e which server containsthe master copy of the database The singular value of master contains two fields a hostname and a domain tag separated by a which uniquely identifies the machine and process serving as mas ter of this data For example the entry eastman network says that the netinfod 8 process serv ing domain tag network on the machine eastman controls the master copy of the database For added security a second property can be installed in the root directory to limit who can connect to the domain By default anybody can connect to the domain which would allow them to read anything that is there writes are protected how ever If this default is undesirable a property called trusted_networks should be ena bled in the root directory Its values should be the network or subnet addresses which are assumed to contain trusted machines which are allowed to connect to the domain Any other clients are assumed to be untrustworthy A name may be used instead of an address If a name is given then that name should be listed as a subdirectory of networks within the same domain
169. write to the specified property only The value of the writers property list of usernames can take the value This is a wildcard meaning all users of the domain The wildcard specification is generally used when defining access to printers in a domain So far the databases that have been discussed are master servers A clone server can be set up to mirror the information of a master server The name server in NetInfo terminology refers to the database that serves a domain Clones can beset up for two reasons reliability and load balancing It isup to the administrator to decide if there are sufficient resources available to establish a clone Resources required include a separate host with sufficient disk space swap space and memory If an organisation requires uninterrupted NetInfo service a clone should be established A clone server is an exact copy of a master server If a host is down or a domain cannot be connected for any reason the clone database can be used instead of the inaccessible master database Clone databases however cannot be modified if the master server is down This ensures that there is only one source of domain information Also clones cannot be created on the same host as the master database they copy Clones can also be used to establish the best load balance of a network A host will search for information locally before attempting to search the network If aclone is established on alocal hos
170. ysdev on alpha NetInfo can be shutdown gracefully using nistop This is a supplied script that ad ministrators may use or adjust to suit their environment It shuts down each net infod daemon serving a database on the host as well as the nibindd and niypd daemons Using nipasswd Example Changing a Password Chapter 7 Maintenance User Maintenance Users must be able to change their own password without requiring super user access A supplied program called nipasswd that allows users to do this The password value is encrypted on thescreen when displayed or written using the niutil program It is possible to change the value of this property using niutil but the command line tools echo the value as they are typed in and it will not be en crypted nipasswd allows users to change their own password It works like the UNIX passwd tool it prompts for the old and new passwords without echoing them on the screen encrypts and validates them and updates the password information only if the responses are valid Users must have _ writers access to their own password property in order to change their password writers Property Normally only root has write access to information in the NetInfo databases Users can be granted permission to change the values of specific properties or variables by applying the _ writers property In order to change their own password users must have writers access to their pa

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