Overview of LDAP-UX Client Services

Traditionally, HP-UX account and configuration information is stored in text files, for example /etc/passwd and /etc/group. Network Information Service (NIS) was developed to ease system administration by sharing this information across systems on the network. With NIS, account and configuration information resides on NIS servers. NIS client systems retrieve this shared configuration information across the network from NIS servers, as shown in Figure 1-1 “A Simplified NIS Environment”:

Figure 1-1 A Simplified NIS Environment

LDAP-UX Client Services for Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory improve on this configuration information sharing. HP-UX account and configuration information is stored in Active Directory instead of on the local client system. Client systems retrieve this shared configuration information across the network from Active Directory, as shown in Figure 1-2 “A Simplified LDAP-UX Client Services Environment”. This adds greater scalability, operation with other applications and platforms, and less network traffic from replica updates.

Figure 1-2 A Simplified LDAP-UX Client Services Environment

LDAP-UX Client Services for Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory supports the passwd and group name service data. Refer to the LDAP-UX Client Services Release Notes for any additional supported services.