nisping(1M) System Administration Commands nisping(1M)NAMEnisping - send ping to NIS+ servers
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/nis/nisping [-uf] [-H hostname] [-r | directory]
/usr/lib/nis/nisping -C [-a] [-H hostname] [directory]
DESCRIPTION
In the first SYNOPSIS line, the nisping command sends a ``ping'' to all
replicas of an NIS+ directory. Once a replica receives a ping, it will
check with the master server for the directory to get updates. Prior to
pinging the replicas, this command attempts to determine the last
update "seen" by a replica and the last update logged by the master. If
these two timestamps are the same, the ping is not sent. The -f (force)
option will override this feature.
Under normal circumstances, NIS+ replica servers get the new informa‐
tion from the master NIS+ server within a short time. Therefore, there
should not be any need to use nisping.
In the second SYNOPSIS line, the nisping-C command sends a checkpoint
request to the servers. If no directory is specified, the home domain,
as returned by nisdefaults(1), is checkpointed. If all directories,
served by a given server, have to be checkpointed, then use the -a
option.
On receiving a checkpoint request, the servers would commit all the
updates for the given directory from the table log files to the data‐
base files. This command, if sent to the master server, will also send
updates to the replicas if they are out of date. This option is needed
because the database log files for NIS+ are not automatically check‐
pointed. nisping should be used at frequent intervals (such as once a
day) to checkpoint the NIS+ database log files. This command can be
added to the crontab(1) file. If the database log files are not check‐
pointed, their sizes will continue to grow.
If the server specified by the -H option does not serve the directory,
then no ping is sent.
Per-server and per-directory access restrictions may apply; see
nisopaccess(1). nisping uses NIS_CPTIME and NIS_PING (resync (ping) of
replicas), or NIS_CHECKPOINT (for checkpoint). Since the NIS_PING oper‐
ation does not return a status, the nisping command is typically unable
to indicate success or failure for resyncs.
OPTIONS-a Checkpoint all directories on the server.
-C Send a request to checkpoint, rather than a ping, to
each server. The servers schedule to commit all the
transactions to stable storage.
-H hostname Only the host hostname is sent the ping, checked for an
update time, or checkpointed.
-f Force a ping, even though the timestamps indicate there
is no reason to do so. This option is useful for debug‐
ging.
-r This option can be used to update or get status about
the root object from the root servers, especially when
new root replicas are added or deleted from the list.
If used without -u option, -r will send a ping request
to the servers serving the root domain. When the repli‐
cas receive a ping, they will update their root object
if needed.
The -r option can be used with all other options except
with the -C option; the root object need not be check‐
pointed.
-u Display the time of the last update; no servers are
sent a ping.
RETURN VALUES
−1 No servers were contacted, or the server specified by
the -H switch could not be contacted.
0 Success.
1 Some, but not all, servers were successfully contacted.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Using nisping
This example pings all replicas of the default domain:
example% nisping
Note that this example will not ping the org_dir and groups_dir subdi‐
rectories within this domain.
This example pings the server example which is a replica of the
org_dir.foo.com. directory:
example% nisping-H example org_dir.foo.com.
This example checkpoints all servers of the org_dir.bar.com. directory.
example% nisping-C org_dir.bar.com.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
NIS_PATH If this variable is set, and the NIS+ directory
name is not fully qualified, each directory
specified will be searched until the directory
is found.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWnisu │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOcrontab(1), nisdefaults(1), nisopaccess(1), nislog(1M), nisfiles(4),
attributes(5)NOTES
NIS+ might not be supported in future releases of the Solaris operating
system. Tools to aid the migration from NIS+ to LDAP are available in
the current Solaris release. For more information, visit
http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html.
SunOS 5.10 12 Dec 2001 nisping(1M)
