(acronym "NIS") An IP resolution service above the DNS layer which provides a central point of administration for common configuration files and preserves the consistency of these configuration files across all hosts on the network.
A set of protocols, developed by Sun Microsystems, that are used to provide directory services for network information.
A reliable network service that provides a mapping from keys in maps to values. Some common maps include passwd for identifying and authenticating users, groups for authorizing users to access certain resources on machines, names for converting computer names to IP addresses (not commonly used, DNS is more common) NIS has lots of other possible uses, such as telephone books and any other data that is read-mostly and changes slowly.
A network naming and administration system for small networks. Using NIS, each host client or server computer in the system has knowledge about the entire system. A user at any host can get access to files or applications on any host in the network with a single user identification and password. NIS is similar to the Internet's domain name system (DNS) but somewhat simpler and designed for a smaller network.
A set of protocols developed by Sun Microsystems, which provides directory services for network information.
A distributed database system providing centralized management of common configuration files, such as /etc/passwd and /etc/hosts.
The Network Information Service or NIS is Sun Microsystems’ “Yellow Pages†(YP) client-server directory service protocol for distributing system configuration data such as user and host names between computers on a computer network.