Re: Multisubnet NIS slave options

[William LeFebvre <wnl@groupsys.com>]

"Shane B. Milburn" wrote:
> 2. Use the "-ypset" option on the clients to allow them
>    to bind across the router. We have about 60 machines
>    per subnet so I'm not sure how this would affect the
>    router.

Don't use -ypset.  If you have to do this, use -ypsetme.  But even that is
living dangerously.  (Of course just using NIS is living dangerously.... 
:-) )

Most modern NIS implementations allow you to specify a list of servers that
a client can bind to.  This list is in
/var/yp/binding/<domainname>/ypservers.  Each host listed there must also be
listed in /etc/hosts (since NIS isn't yet working when the binding takes
place, the servers MUST be listed in the host file).  You should be able to
list the main server in every client's ypservers file.  This should allow
the clients to bind through a router.  Check "man ypbind" to see if your
ypbind allows for this.  And once the upservers file is in place, make sure
that the startup scripts do NOT invoke ypbind with the -broadcast switch.  

If your system doesn't honor ypservers, then you're back to your two
choices:  find the equipment needed to get one interface per subnet or go
with ypsetme.  Router's can't be taught to forward the initial broadcast
requests because the port number isn't fixed.

If you want scalability on your server with quad ethernet cards then you
could always get another server and use one server for every 4 subnets.  A
NIS server doesn't need to be all that beefy.  If you dedicate a machine to
the task you can get away with using a pretty small box.

-- 
				William LeFebvre
				Mooney 4074H
				wnl@groupsys.com