Very Computer

Has anyone managed to get an Alpha running RedHat 4.2 set up as an NIS
client correctly? From looking through newsgroup and mailing list
archives, I have learned the following :-

1. There is no built-in support in libc for NYS, so "ybind" does need
to be running.

2. I have installed ypbind-3.0.1 RPM from the RedHat web site and done
the following :-

- created a /etc/yp.conf file containing two lines. One specifies the
NIS domain and the other the ypserver hostname.
- created a /var/yp directory.
- edited /etc/rc.d/init.d/ypbind.init to add a line with the
'domainname' command before the ypbind daemon is started.

Each time I try to log into the machine from across the network, I get
errors in the system log telling me that ypbind has a floating
exception.

3. After further searching through the mailing lists, I find that
others report a similar problem and recommend installation of
ypbind-3.3 from :-

ftp://weber.uni-paderborn.de/pub/linux/NIS

The source code compiles out-of-the-box and installs fine. However,
when I run it, I find that the ypbind daemon periodically loses its
connection to the NIS server (the NIS server is a Solaris machine and
is serving the rest of our network just fine during these
disconnects). I also find that it is impossible to ping the NIS server
during these periods (maybe this is a clue to what is going wrong, I
don't know).

I'd greatly appreciate any information from anyone who has had
similiar difficulties or could point me in the direction of some
useful information.

Thanks,

Neil.

--
* Neil Henson                          Hartlepool Renaissance: a marina,    *

* http://www.t12.lanl.gov/~njh        Tel: 505-667-7795  Fax: 505-665-3909  *
* Group T-12, Mail Stop B268, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545, USA *

Quote:> I had a similar experience with my Alpha running RedHat 4.2. After 'strace'
> the ypbind slave process, it became clear what was causing the problem.
> Over time, the timeout argument in the select() calls gradually reduced to
> zero. When the value reaches zero, the process blasts the NIS server with
> hundreds of requests until the reply for the first one comes back. I'm
> surprised the server is holding up so well.

Quote:> Could someone shed some light on this?

The fix is that when porting code always make sure the timeout is
reset before calling select.

Good luck,

--
Harvey J. Stein
Berger Financial Research