Re: [TUHS] YP / NIS / NIS+ / LDAP

[Arthur Krewat <krewat@kilonet.net>]

On 11/4/2018 3:51 PM, Grant Taylor via TUHS wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with YP / NIS / NIS+ / LDAP as a 
> central directory on Unix?
>

I've used all three (NIS and YP are the same thing).

I think it all depends on what you're centered on. If your user 
credentials are all in Active Directory, you use LDAP. If you already 
have LDAP, you use LDAP. If you've been using NIS for the past 20 years 
(like I have in my office), you stick with NIS+. NIS+? Same thing. NIS+ 
is a little limited, as I'm not sure what supports that anymore. I don't 
think even Solaris 11.x does.

As to which is better, I really can't say. LDAP/AD has it's points. When 
NIS+ first came out, I gladly moved to it, as it has a compatibility 
mode that allows it to answer NIS queries. So the transition from NIS to 
NIS+ went smoothly. But that was an almost 100% Sun shop where I did that.

if I were to start up a new environment today, and it was PURELY Unix, 
I'd probably use NIS. But then, I have a slew of scripts that I use to 
administer NIS (and NIS+) that use SCCS for change tracking, and also 
can populate DNS zones for the hosts map. To administer LDAP, you either 
use a GUI, or script things with ldapmodify, etc. Which is ghastly, IMO.

art k.