Darren Kenny writes: > Further to this - while it's currently the case that many people have > different > DNS and default domainname, I wonder if we (NWAM) should be undertaking a push > towards using the same for both, in that by default DNS will also use the > default domainname, but allow for a user (using advanced settings) to use a > different one...
I don't see how that's possible. It's the network administrator who chooses how to use these attributes, not the NWAM user, so the NWAM user likely can't be "pushed" to do anything but comply with what the powers-that-be determine. In my case, I have to live with the way the IT folks who run the SWAN manage things. My DNS domain is east.sun.com but my NIS domain is ecd.east.sun.com. That's just how it is. If you push on me, I'll point out that (a) I have no control over IT and (b) a design that assumes I do is going to be hard and annoying to use. I think the real confusion here is just naming. The NIS "domain" has nothing to do with a DNS "domain." There's no connection. You can't meaningfully ask for <host>.<nisdomain> -- it makes no sense. You also can't ask for the "passwd.byname" map inside <dnsdomain> -- that doesn't exist. It's a *really* unfortunate accident of history that these entirely different objects have been given very similar names. Even if you subscribe to the erroneous religion based on the "hosts.byname" book, it's not true that the entries in that book use the NIS domain as DNS uses domains. They're just tokens -- just names -- entirely devoid of what DNS would call a "domain." It sure would have been better for all if domainname had been called the "NIS Administrative Area" or some such, but the time for fixing that is long past. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
