Name Services

If you are managing user accounts for a large site, you might want to consider using a name service such as NIS, NIS+, or (as of Solaris 9) LDAP. A name service lets you store user account information in a centralized manner instead of storing it in every system’s /etc files. When using a name service for user accounts, users can move from system to system using the same user account without having sitewide user account information duplicated in every system’s /etc files. Using a name service also promotes centralized and consistent user account information. NIS, NIS+, and LDAP (the iPlanet Directory Server) are discussed in Chapter 23, “Name Services.”