Hi,

We are trying to set up a NIS server on a CentOS system. We need to have a NIS server which can provide NIS authentication to a couple of clients. We are practically new to all this stuff.

Just googled to find some ideas about installing ypserv and ypbind and portmapper. We did all that and also started them successfully. But now the clients are not able to join to the NIS domain . The error log states "YP_DOMAIN NOT BOUND".

I guess we have not entered the /etc/yp.conf, /etc/hosts files properly. Please let us know the detailed steps to setup a NIS server . Also, please let us know what entries should go into the different /etc/<file_names>? What is meant by HOSTNAME in the /etc/hosts file?

Is there any other files which need to be changed? Are we missing any steps?

Also to add-on, while executing the ypinit command we faced the following error:

root@localhost yp]# ./ypinit -m

At this point, we have to construct a list of the hosts which will run NIS
servers. localhost.localdomain is in the list of NIS server hosts. Please cont inue to add
the names for the other hosts, one per line. When you are done with the
list, type a <control D>.
next host to add: localhost.localdomain
next host to add:
The current list of NIS servers looks like this:

localhost.localdomain

Is this correct? [y/n: y] y
We need a few minutes to build the databases...
Building /var/yp/domain/ypservers...
Running /var/yp/Makefile...
gmake[1]: Entering directory `/var/yp/domain'
gmake[1]: *** No rule to make target `all'. Stop.
gmake[1]: Leaving directory `/var/yp/domain'
make: *** [target] Error 2
Error running Makefile.
Please try it by hand.

Have you considered setting up an LDAP environment instead? It is more secure than NIS and in my opinion easier to setup/maintain.

I must admit I don't have any experience with NIS and am resorting to a old Fedora Core 5 book. The localhost.localdomain may cause problems if that name is used on the clients. Try the real hostname and domain name. Make sure your server has a hostname. Some new installations have localhost.localdomain as the hostname. You are supposed to change that. This is done so you don't install several computers with a default hostname.

Enter:
domainname

If it doesn't return anything run
sudo domainname <yournisdomainname>

Then edit /etc/sysconfig/network and add the line:
NISDOMAIN=<yournisdomainname>

This line will be needed in each NIS server and client.

Edit the Makefile to modify any setting you need. There should be a line like:
all: passwd group hosts rpc sevices netid protocols mail \
# netgrp shadow publickey ...

There's a good HOWTO here http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...onfiguring_NIS