YP / NIS / NIS+ notes

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YP (Yellow Pages) / NIS (Network Information Service) is an RPC-style system that lets you synchronize system configuration between hosts, and seems primarily used specifically to handle simple centralized accounts (for logins, or or just to keep UIDs and GIDs synchronized).

Generally, NIS and YP refers to version 2, NIS+ to NIS version 3, but not everyone uses the terms very precisely, so check.

Upsides:

• eases managementy in, say, a cluster or just using NFS, or a bunch of workstations you want to cooperate tightly.

Downsides:

• it's an extra step on top of your usual per-host management (some parts are relatively manual)
• doesn't scale very nicely to very large setups,
• not all implementations are terribly secure

...so in large setups also see other systems.