nobody@kodak.com (05/04/90)
I'm in the process of taking over responsibility of a YP domain that consists of 4 servers (3/280's and 4/280) and about 70 clients. Most of the clients are diskless, although there are a few standalones that use YP services and mount various directories from the servers. One of the servers is is the YP master and the others are slave servers. In the process of exploring and trying to clean up various stuff, I've noticed that many systems have large hosts files (/etc/hosts). Some of these are somewhat outdated. It is my understanding that a diskless client only needs to know about its server in its own hosts file. This is for mounting / and /usr. The remaining mounts are not made until after ypbind starts up. Therefore, YP services take care of host name and host address resolution. Is this understanding correct? I did this on my own diskless workstation and it booted fine having only the server that supplies its root directory and swap area in the hosts file. I'd assume that a server would also not need to know about its clients in order for it (the server) to boot correctly. I'd assume it only needs to know about itself in its own hosts file, if it indeed needs to know anything at all. Once again, after YP starts up (ypbind) it can mount file systems from the other servers. (Actually the YP master has the full blown hosts file as it is needed to make the YP maps.) Even though suninstall puts the name and address of a server's clients in the server's hosts file, I gather that they are not really needed unless that server is the YP master. If there is something wrong with my assumptions and understanding of this, I'd appreciate having someone point out my errors. My understanding comes from reading chapters 5 and 12 of the System and Network Administration Manual. If this is explained elsewhere, I'd like to know about it. Thanks, Charlie Dennett | UUCP: ...!rutgers!rochester!kodak!cygnus!dennett Information Services | Internet: dennett@Kodak.COM Eastman Kodak Company | Phone: (716) 726-4480 Rochester, NY 14653-5219 | Minicomputer Tech. Support Group - HP3000/VAX/SUN