Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition - Mike Eisler [4]
Who this book is for
This book is of interest to system administrators and network managers who are installing or planning new NFS and NIS networks, or debugging and tuning existing networks and servers. It is also aimed at the network user who is interested in the mechanics that hold the network together.
We'll assume that you are familiar with the basics of Unix system administration and TCP/IP networking. Terms that are commonly misused or particular to a discussion will be defined as needed. Where appropriate, an explanation of a low-level phenomenon, such as Ethernet congestion will be provided if it is important to a more general discussion such as NFS performance on a congested network. Models for these phenomena will be drawn from everyday examples rather than their more rigorous mathematical and statistical roots.
This book focuses on the way NFS and NIS work, and how to use them to solve common problems in a distributed computing environment. Because Sun Microsystems developed and continues to innovate NFS and NIS, this book uses Sun's Solaris operating system as the frame of reference. Thus if you are administering NFS on non-Solaris systems, you should use this book in conjunction with your vendor's documentation, since utilities and their options will vary by implementation and release. This book explains what the configuration files and utilities do, and how their options affect performance and system administration issues. By walking through the steps comprising a complex operation or by detailing each step in the debugging process, we hope to shed light on techniques for effective management of distributed computing environments. There are very few absolute constraints or thresholds that are universally applicable, so we refrain from stating them. This book should help you to determine the fair utilization and performance constraints for your network.
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[1] NIS was formerly called the "Yellow Pages." While many commands and directory names retain the yp prefix, the formal name of the set of services has been changed to avoid conflicting with registered trademarks.
Versions
This book is based on the Solaris 8 implementations of NFS and NIS. When used without a version number, "Solaris" refers to the Solaris 2.x, Solaris 7, and Solaris 8 operating systems and their derivatives (note that the next version of Solaris after Solaris 2.6 was Solaris 7; in the middle of the development process, Sun renamed Solaris 2.7 to Solaris 7). NFS- and NIS-related tools have changed significantly between Solaris 2.0 and Solaris 8, so while it is usually the case that an earlier version of Solaris supports a function we discuss, it is not infrequent that it will not. For example, early releases of Solaris 2.x did not even have true NIS support. For another, Sun has made profound enhancements to NFS with nearly every release of Solaris.
The Linux examples presented throughout the book were run on the Linux 2.2.14-5 kernel. Linux kernels currently implement NFS Version 2, although a patch is available that provides Version 3 support.
Organization
This book is divided into two sections. The first twelve chapters contain explanations of the implementation and operation of NFS and NIS. Chapter 13 through Chapter 18 cover advanced administrative and debugging techniques, performance analysis, and tuning. Building on the introductory material, the second section of the book delves into low-level details such as the effects of network partitioning hardware and the various steps in a remote procedure call. The material in this section is directly applicable to the ongoing maintenance and debugging of a network.
Here's the chapter-by-chapter breakdown:
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the underlying network protocols and services used by NFS and NIS.