- Evolution of Solaris Naming Services
- NIS and Files Coexistence
- NIS and DNS Coexistence
- Solaris Naming Service Switch
- Solaris Naming Service Switch Architecture
- NIS Architecture Overview
- NIS Client Server Architecture
- How NIS Clients Bind to the NIS Server
- NIS Maps
- NIS High Availability Architecture Features
- NIS+ Architecture Overview
- NIS+ Client Server Architecture
- How NIS+ Clients Bind to the NIS+ Server
- NIS+ Tables
- NIS+ Interaction with DNS
- NIS+ High Availability Architecture Features
- Solaris DNS Architecture Overview
- DNS Client Architecture
- DNS Server Architecture
- DNS High Availability Features
- LDAP Architecture Overview
- LDAP Information Model
- LDAP Naming Model
- LDAP Functional Model
- LDAP Security Model
- LDAP Replication
- Comparison with Legacy Naming Services
Solaris Naming Service Switch
With the release of the Solaris 2 operating system, Sun introduced a new naming service called NIS+ and an infrastructure for managing the coexistence of multiple naming services. With NIS and DNS already widely deployed, and NIS+ added to the mix, some mechanism for easy interoperability was required. The DNS forwarding mechanism and "+" notation used in NIS maps were not easily extensible to new naming services like NIS+.
To support the switch, Sun programmers developed a new Application
Programming Interface (API) that system utilities and other applications could use instead of talking directly to the naming service. Programs written to this API do not need to know the implementation details of the naming service they are accessing. The switch also gives the system administrator the flexibility to choose which naming services are consulted and in which order.