Name Services / Using

/etc/rc2.d/S72inetsvc script -- Starts DNS during system boot.
/etc/rc2.d/S71rpc script -- Starts NIS & NIS+ during system boot
/etc/rc2.d/S72directory script -- Starts iPlanet Server during system boot.

Name Services -- DNS, NIS, NIS+, LDAP

The name service switch file determines which services a system users to search for information and in which order the name services are searched. All Solaris OE systems uses the /etc/nsswitch.conf file as the name service switch file. The nsswitch.conf is loaded with the contents of a template file during the installation of the Solaris OE depending on the name service that is selected.

Name Service Name Service Template
Local Files /etc/nsswitch.files
DNS /etc/nsswitch.dns
NIS /etc/nsswitch.nis
NIS+ /etc/nsswitch.nisplus
LDAP /etc/nsswitch.ldap

Configuring the Name Service Cache Daemo (nscd)

The nscd daemon is a process that provides a cache for the most common name service requests. The /etc/nscd.conf file controls the behavior of the nscd daemon. The nscd daemon provides caching for passwd, group, hosts, ipnodes, exec_attr, prof_attr and user_attr databases. Each line specifies either an attribute and a value or an attribute, a cache name, and a value.

# /etc/init.d.nscd stop (or) start

The getent command provides generic retrieval interface to search many name service database. As a system administrator, you can query name service information sources with tools, such as the
ypcat NIS namespace
nslookup DNS
ldaplist LDAP
Bt these tools are not consulting nsswitch.conf file. Whereas getent command searches the information sources in the order in which they are configured in the name service switch file. So if there is any error in the file will be identified with this command.

getent database [key]…..
database -- The name of the database to be examined. This name can be passwd, group, hosts, ipnodes, services, protocols, ethers, networkds, or netmasks.

# getent passwd lp
lp:x:71:8:Line Printer Admin:/usr/spool/lp:

# getent group 10
staff::10:

# getent hosts sys44
192.168.38.44 sys44 loghost (loghost will be absent if the NIS is searched first)