NIS Question.

[joe_91]

Hi All:

We had a requirement to turn off rpc.ypupdated daemon and we turned it off as we felt that it was used only when we manually update the NIS maps.(10.20)

After disabling this deamon and next time when we reboot the system, Start NIS Server Subsystem (in HP UX Server Startup in Progress menu)is showing FAILED. This is because
of the rval=1(in /sbin/init.d/nis.server file, line number 352),
when /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/rpc.ypupdated file not found.

If we change this rval=0(zero) after disabling the deamon and restart the server, this FAILED messege is changed to OK.
So should we change rval to zero (/sbin/init.d/nis.server file, when we turn off rpc.ypupdated?? OR they may be other implications??

Thanks
Joe.

[steven Burgess_2]

Hi

The correct place to disable an application is not by the startup scripts in /sbin/init.d but by ammending the config file /etc/rc.config.d/namesvrs file

If you check the entry in /sbin/init.d/nis.server it does state

NOTE: This script is not configurable! Any changes made to this
script will be overwritten when you upgrade to the next
release of HP-UX. Use /etc/rc.config.d/namesvrs to make changes
WARNING: Changing this script in any way may lead to a system that
is unbootable. Do not modify this script.

HTH

Steve

[S.K. Chan]

That is an odd way of disabling rpc.ypupdated (i.e by modifying "rval"). I have seen a secure installation site that approach this issue in different way. What they do is they add an extra script in /sbin/init.d and that script starts up last in /sbin/rc3.d. The function of that script is to kill the rpc.ypupdated process. So basically they let everything starts up and kill rpc.ypupdated at the end before the system comes up in multi-user mode. You may want to consider this method.

[joe_91]

Thank you very much. sk's idea was good but i am not sure whether we can touch /sbin/init.d at all on the production box. I did see ypupdated in namesvrs file what would be the option to disable it?
And also any other side effects by touching thew rval to zero???

Thanks
Joe.

[S.K. Chan]

I am not sure whether we can touch /sbin/init.d at all on the production box.
==> Creating your script in /sbin/init.d and make the necessary link in /sbin/rc3.d does not do anything to a running server because this will only be executed upon bootup.

I did see ypupdated in namesvrs file what would be the option to disable it?
==>There no option to disable it. If you do "man ypupdated" I think there is 2 options (-i or -s). The "-s" is the more secure method (secure RPC method).

And also any other side effects by touching thew rval to zero???
==> I don't think there is any side effects. I have used the method before for a quick "band-aid" but not on nis.server, but on other startup script.