The FreeBSD NIS(YP) HOWTO : What do you need to set up NIS? : Determine whether you are a Server, Slave or Client.
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6.1. Determine whether you are a Server, Slave or Client.NIS!determining system type

To answer this question you have to consider two cases:

  1. Your machine is going to be part of a network with existing NIS servers
  2. You do not have any NIS servers in the network yet

In the first case, you only need the client programs (ypbind, ypwhich, ypcat, yppoll, ypmatch). The most important program is ypbind. This program must be running at all times, which means, it should always appear in the list of processes. It is a daemon process and needs to be started from the system's startup file (eg. /etc/rc.network). You specify your desire to run ypbind in /etc/rc.conf. As soon as ypbind is running your system has become a NIS client.

In the second case, if you don't have NIS servers, then you will also need a NIS server program (usually called ypserv). Section Setting up a NIS Server describes how to set up a NIS server on your FreeBSD machine using "ypserv".


The FreeBSD NIS(YP) HOWTO : What do you need to set up NIS? : Determine whether you are a Server, Slave or Client.
Previous: What do you need to set up NIS?
Next: The Software