NIS problem

[Art Werschulz]

Hi.

I am sorry to repost this. However, I have been told that
comp.os.linux.misc is a quasi-bogus newsgroup. Since I had directed
all responses to comp.os.linux.misc, I'm afraid that any responses
will simply go into /dev/null.

Running Fedora Core 6 on an Intel x86 platform ...

The hard drive on our NIS master server just died. We are in the
process of rebuilding the server. (We have no slave servers.)

On the NIS master server, I did
/usr/lib/yp/ypinit -m
I took the default action of only using the hostname of our one NIS
server. I then did
service ypbind start
service ypxfrd start
(The latter was to play it safe; we haven't used it before.)
The output of "rpcinfo -p localhost" is
program vers proto port
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100024 1 udp 654 status
100024 1 tcp 657 status
100009 1 udp 969 yppasswdd
100021 1 tcp 44909 nlockmgr
100021 3 tcp 44909 nlockmgr
100021 4 tcp 44909 nlockmgr
100007 2 udp 639 ypbind
100007 1 udp 639 ypbind
100007 2 tcp 642 ypbind
100007 1 tcp 642 ypbind
600100069 1 udp 688 fypxfrd
600100069 1 tcp 690 fypxfrd
100004 2 udp 983 ypserv
100004 1 udp 983 ypserv
100004 2 tcp 986 ypserv
100004 1 tcp 986 ypserv
This looks pretty good. Moreover, on the master server, the commands
ypwhich
ypmatch joeuser passwd
getent joeuser passwd
give the expected results.

I then go over to an NIS client. (Please note that nothing evil has
happened to the client.) The command
service ypbind start
gives me
Turning on allow_ypbind SELinux boolean
Binding to the NIS domain: [ OK ]
Listening for an NIS domain server....................
Turning off allow_ypbind SELinux boolean
[FAILED]

Note that the client *can* ping the server.

What have I forgotten to do?

Many thanks!

[Moe Trin]

On 30 Mar 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.redhat, in article

Post by Art Werschulz
I am sorry to repost this. However, I have been told that
comp.os.linux.misc is a quasi-bogus newsgroup. Since I had directed
all responses to comp.os.linux.misc, I'm afraid that any responses
will simply go into /dev/null.

On the 15th of each month, there is a posting to the newsgroups
news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, and news.lists.misc with the subject
"List of Big Eight Newsgroups" - so it's ignoring 'alt.*'. Doing a search
for the word linux - you'd find:

[compton ~]$ zgrep linux ../big.8.list.03.15.07.gz | cut -f1 | column
comp.os.linux.advocacy comp.os.linux.misc
comp.os.linux.alpha comp.os.linux.networking
comp.os.linux.announce comp.os.linux.portable
comp.os.linux.answers comp.os.linux.powerpc
comp.os.linux.development.apps comp.os.linux.security
comp.os.linux.development.system comp.os.linux.setup
comp.os.linux.embedded comp.os.linux.x
comp.os.linux.hardware comp.os.linux.xbox
comp.os.linux.m68k
[compton ~]$ zgrep comp.os.linux.misc ../big.8.list.03.15.07.gz
comp.os.linux.misc Linux-specific topics not covered by other groups.
[compton ~]$

Lo - comp.os.linux.misc is there and sorta on-topic, while the other three
groups you posted to are the bogus ones. Unfortunately, the big-eight list
doesn't have a newsgroup for NIS, and neither does the comcast news server.

Post by Art Werschulz
The hard drive on our NIS master server just died. We are in the
process of rebuilding the server. (We have no slave servers.)

Bad doggy! Bad doggy. No biscuit! And no backups either.

Post by Art Werschulz
On the NIS master server, I did

OK... but what does 'netstat -anup' show? Are you listening on an
external interface (no firewall)?

Post by Art Werschulz
Moreover, on the master server, the commands
ypwhich
ypmatch joeuser passwd
getent joeuser passwd
give the expected results.

OK - server is at least running and listening on the loopback.

Post by Art Werschulz
I then go over to an NIS client. (Please note that nothing evil has
happened to the client.) The command
service ypbind start
gives me
Turning on allow_ypbind SELinux boolean
Binding to the NIS domain: [ OK ]
Listening for an NIS domain server....................
Turning off allow_ypbind SELinux boolean
[FAILED]

Ah, don't you just love windoze - and windoze wannabe interfaces? So
informative - so much useful feedback.

Post by Art Werschulz
Note that the client *can* ping the server.

Yeah, but ping is ICMP - has virtually nothing to do with NIS.

Post by Art Werschulz
What have I forgotten to do?

My guess - firewall setup. You might also use a packet sniffer like
tcpdump, ethereal or wireshark to see what the packets are on the wire.

Old guy

[Art Werschulz]

Hi.

Post by Moe Trin

Post by Art Werschulz
The hard drive on our NIS master server just died. We are in the
process of rebuilding the server. (We have no slave servers.)

Bad doggy! Bad doggy. No biscuit! And no backups either.

We had a backup. But it wasn't as recent as I would've liked.

Post by Moe Trin
My guess - firewall setup.

That was it.

[mark south]

Post by Art Werschulz
I have been told that
comp.os.linux.misc is a quasi-bogus newsgroup.

It's a real newsgroup, it just suffers from being filled with crossposted
garbage from c.o.l.a, which is why everyone else has taken refuge in the
alt.os.linux.* hierarchy....

[Keith Keller]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.admin.]

Post by mark south

Post by Art Werschulz
I have been told that
comp.os.linux.misc is a quasi-bogus newsgroup.

It's a real newsgroup, it just suffers from being filled with crossposted
garbage from c.o.l.a, which is why everyone else has taken refuge in the
alt.os.linux.* hierarchy....

I have this entry in my scorefile:

Score:: -10000 % really annoying crossposts
Xref: comp.os.linux.advocacy

It helps cut down on the noise from those crossposts. (I have other
entries that score down based on the number of newsgroups on the
Newsgroups: line.)

--keith

[Moe Trin]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.admin, in article

Post by mark south

I have been told that comp.os.linux.misc is a quasi-bogus newsgroup.

It's a real newsgroup, it just suffers from being filled with crossposted
garbage from c.o.l.a, which is why everyone else has taken refuge in the
alt.os.linux.* hierarchy....

Huh???

[compton ~]$ grep -vE '^([%\[ ]|Score|$)' /var/spool/slrnpull/score | cut
-d' ' -f1 | sort | uniq -c | column
789 From: 5 Message-ID: 75 Xref:
2 Lines: 238 Subject: 2 ~Subject:
[compton ~]$ grep advocacy /var/spool/slrnpull/score
Xref: advocacy
[compton ~]$

That's a _very_ aggressive killfile, and that 'Xref' line kills posts
that may be cross-posted to ANY advocacy group. I also killfile posts
from entire countries. The results for comp.os.linux.misc up to 1500
on April 18, 2007 are:

Period 1H03 2H03 1H04 2H04 1H05 2H05 1H06 2H06 1H07
Articles 18310 20195 18747 15349 15236 18409 18265 14150 7609
Kills 2242 3889 2891 2559 3639 4259 5184 2777 891
Kill % 12.2 19.3 15.4 16.7 23.9 23.1 28.4 19.6 11.7

and those numbers are slightly lower than what I see in
alt.os.linux.suse, alt.os.linux.mandriva, and alt.os.linux.ubuntu.
A problem in the 'alt.os.linux.*' hierarchy is that some of the posters
are just as bigoted that their particular distribution is the only true
version as any windroid.

Old guy