system files need to keep in sync?

[Victor_5]

Generally, what system files need to keep in sync?

For example, uid, gid, hosts, more...?

[John Bolene]

Not sure I understand the question.

I assume keep in sync across multiple machines so that the same user/password can be used on all of them?

If you are using DNS, then /etc/hosts does not need updating.

On our systems, each user is required to change password every 90 days and it is their responsibility to remember the password that they used on each machine.

[Patrick Wallek]

What do you mean? What system files are you keeping in sync with what? Are you trying to keep the files consistent between systems so that you have a generic system template?

If you are doing that it would probably be easier to look at something like NIS or NIS+ to keep things synced up automatically rather than doing things manually.

A list of files I would look to keep in sync though:

passwd
group
hosts
resolv.conf
nsswitch.conf
inetd.conf
services
inetd.sec
syslog.conf

[Sridhar Bhaskarla · Accepted solution]

Sync up with what?. Is this for MC/Service Guard cluster?.

If so, there are many

1. /etc/passwd and /etc/group
2. /etc/hosts, /etc/nsswtich.conf, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/services, /etc/inetd.conf,/var/adm/inetd.sec,/etc/syslog.conf, /etc/hosts.equiv, /etc/shells, /etc/ftpusers so on....
3. /etc/cmcluster/*

-Sri

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Shawn:

Patrick's answer is the best choice. I would also add to that list the automounter maps if you are using the automounter. The beauty of NIS+ is that all of that can be centrally managed and you can define slave NIS+ servers in case the master is down. The other thing that should be kept in sync across your boxes is time; for that you need to set up NTP and have at least two local time servers. Preferably, one of those servers in turn gets its time from GPS or the US Naval Observatory over the Internet.

Your other method of file sync, is 'rdist' which you can get from one of the HP-UX Porting Centre's but my preference is NIS+. It's very nice to be able to set a passwd anywhere in the domain and have that change rippled through the system automatically.

My 3 cents, Clay
Clay