INTRODUCTION
Naming services, like NIS and NIS+, have long been an integral part
of the Solaris operting environment. Now, for the first time in over 10 years,
Sun is introducing a new naming service into the Solaris operating environment
which provides equivalent functionality to NIS and NIS+. Unlike its predecessors,
the new LDAP naming service stores its data in a directory which is accessible
from a standard network protocol. Not only can operating system information be stored
in the directory, but it also makes an excellent repository for application data.
Just as TCP/IP and HTTP became the foundation of corporate intranets and extranets
in the 90's, directory services based on the standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP) will be requirements in the next millenium. While legacy Solaris directory services
like NIS and NIS+ still play an important role in an organization, the emergence of LDAP as
an industry standard creates opportunities for directory service consolidation and data
sharing among applications.
Realizing that LDAP technology is new to many Sun customers, we present in this
Sun BluePrint the information system administrators and system planners need
to start exploring Solaris LDAP deployment possibilities. This introduction
starts with a definition of what exactly a naming service is, followed by an
overview of the familiar legacy Solaris naming services.
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