Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pcserver2!kdenning
From: kdenning@pcserver2.naitc.com (Karl Denninger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: Re: MIPS NIS
Summary: Two things which will fix this
Message-ID: <1991Feb1.191242.27939@pcserver2.naitc.com>
Date: 1 Feb 91 19:12:42 GMT
References: <1991Jan25.225242.14654@tandem.com>
Organization: AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL USA
Lines: 67

In article <1991Jan25.225242.14654@tandem.com> scott@dsg.tandem.com writes:
>I'm thrashing about, trying to get NIS to work properly on our MIPS Magnum
>workstations.  These are pilot systems for my organization, and if I cannot
>get them fully functional I will be recommending that we don't buy any more
>of these until MIPS gets their act together.  However, maybe I'm just screwed
>up and am not doing my setup correctly.
>
>The basic issue here is that ypbind dies immediately when I start it from
>/etc/init.d/netdaemons.  Our other Unix admin here says that she had that
>problem under RISC/os 4.50, but thought it was fixed under 4.51, which is
>what I'm working with.  By dying immediately, I mean that there is no
>indication that ypbind even lasts a few seconds; a /etc/ypbind followed by
>a /usr/bin/ypwhich in netdaemons yields the error 'ypwhich: bambi is not
>running ypbind'.

Yep. 

>The irritating part is that when I log into the workstation as soon as it
>finishes booting in and type 'ypbind', it starts up fine.  Two successive
>ypwhich commands yield 'Domain .dsg.tandem.com not bound.' and the name of
>one of my Sun YP servers, respectively.
>
>The material in the 'RISC/os System Administrator's Guide, Volume I' that
>discusses NIS is spectacularly useless with respect to *exactly* how and when
>you invoke ypbind in the startup process, so I'm not even confident I'm
>starting ypbind correctly, though it strikes me as being particularly hard
>to screw this up.
>
>So, if anyone has made it through all of my long-winded description, is there
>anyone out there who has seen and conquered this problem under 4.51, or who
>has a fully functional yp running?  If so, I'd like to know what you did to
>make it work.

Yes, we did get it all to work.  And work quite well too.

First, get the YPBIND fix from MIPS.  If you don't, you will have HORRIBLY
slow YP service (although it WILL work regardless, you just will be VERY
upset at the performance.  The patch fixes this entirely).

Second, start ypbind with a "nohup".  I know it's silly, but it needs to be
done.  Here's the extract from our rc scripts...

....
sleep 2
nohup ypbind &
sleep 2
ypwhich >/dev/null 2>&1
sleep 2
ypwhich
.....

One other note.  If you're using the automounter, make darn sure ypbind
starts first!  

Once you do this, it works great.  Our 3260 plays quite nicely with a
network of about 60 Suns, and outperforms them as well, including a 4/490.
The 3260 (which isn't even in the same class as a 4/490) hasn't had a
problem yet that could be considered an "OS / implementation bug".  Sun
could learn a few things from these folks.

--
Karl Denninger - AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL (708) 317-3285
kdenning@nis.naitc.com

"The most dangerous command on any computer is the carriage return."
Disclaimer:  The opinions here are solely mine and may or may not reflect
  	     those of the company.