Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!n5pph007!mab
From: mab@n5pph007.UUCP (Mark Bradford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: yellow pages
Keywords: yppasswdd ypmake
Message-ID: <490@n5pph007.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jul 90 23:07:41 GMT
Organization: Northern Telecom, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Lines: 42


Description of Problem

We are having a severe problem with yellow pages.  The master /etc/passwd
file is becomming corrupted ie mangled lines, lines being appended to the
end, lines being pasted in the middle of the file.  This does not happen
on a regular basis, and we have not detected a pattern as yet.  

Description of Environment

We are running HPUX 7.0 on a network of HP9000 / 8xx's and HP9000 / 3xx's.  
We use an ethernet network with Cisco terminal servers and gateways.  To my 
knowledge our network software is current.                                      

The yellow pages master server is an HP9000 / 840.  We have several slave
servers that are on different subnets from the master.  These slaves are
either HP9000 / 8xx's or HP9000 / 3xx's.

Description of Application

We use the yppasswd C function in the NFS library - see yppasswdd in 3N of the
man pages.  This allows us to use password aging, and to prevent users from
using the same password over and over.  
 
On the master server we have rpc.yppasswdd running with NOPUSH=1 in order to
prevent the password maps being pushed around every time someone updates their
password.  Each of the slave servers does a ypxfr_1perhour on a staggered basis.


Other Observations

In certain situations ypmake seems to begin running uncontrollably.
A new ypmake is spawned every few seconds - The yp password maps are
not updated during this time.  The only way to stop this from happening
is to kill the yppasswdd daemon.  The only time we were able to recreate
this event, there did not appear to be any corruption of the /etc/passwd 
file either before it began or after I killed the yppasswdd daemon.  I may
have killed it too soon.   If someone tries to update their password while
this is going on, the /etc/passwd file gets updated but the yp password
maps do not.

If any one has any idea about what may be going on, please let me know.