nisping(1M)                                                     nisping(1M)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      nisping - send ping to NIS+ servers

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      /usr/lib/nis/nisping [ -uf ] [ -H hostname ]
           [ -r | directory ]

      /usr/lib/nis/nisping -C [ -a ] [ -H hostname ] [ directory ]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      In the first SYNOPSIS line, the nisping command sends a ping to all
      replicas of a NIS+ directory.  Once a replica receives a ping, it will
      check with the master server for the directory to get updates.  Prior
      to pinging the replicas, this command attempts to determine the last
      update "seen" by a replica and the last update logged by the master.
      If these two timestamps are the same, the ping is not sent.  The -f
      (force) option will override this feature.

      Under normal circumstances, NIS+ replica servers get the new
      information from the master NIS+ server within a short time.
      Therefore, there should not be any need to use nisping.

      In the second SYNOPSIS line, the nisping -C command sends a checkpoint
      request to the servers.  If no directory is specified, the home
      domain, as returned by nisdefaults(1), is checkpointed.  If all
      directories, served by a given server, have to be checkpointed, then
      use the -a option.

      On receiving a checkpoint request, the servers would commit all the
      updates for the given directory from the table log files to the
      database files.  This command, if sent to the master server, will also
      send updates to the replicas if they are out of date.  This option is
      needed because the database log files for NIS+ are not automatically
      checkpointed.  nisping should be used at frequent intervals (such as
      once a day) to checkpoint the NIS+ database log files.  This command
      can be added to the crontab(1) file. If the database log files are not
      checkpointed, their sizes will continue to grow.

    Options    [Toc]    [Back]
      -a             Checkpoint all directories on the server.

      -C             Send a request to checkpoint, rather than a ping, to
                     each server.  The servers schedule to commit all the
                     transactions to stable storage.

      -H hostname    Only the host hostname is sent the ping, checked for an
                     update time, or checkpointed.

      -f             Force a ping, even though the timestamps indicate there
                     is no reason to do so.  This option is useful for
                     debugging.



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 nisping(1M)                                                     nisping(1M)




      -r             This option can be used to update or get status about
                     the root object from the root servers, especially when
                     new root replicas are added or deleted from the list.

                     If used without -u option, -r will send a ping request
                     to the servers serving the root domain.  When the
                     replicas receive a ping, they will update their root
                     object if needed.

                     The -r option can be used with all other options except
                     with the -C option; the root object need not be
                     checkpointed.

      -u             Display the time of the last update; no servers are
                     sent a ping.

    Notes    [Toc]    [Back]
      If the server specified by the -H option does not serve the directory,
      then no ping is sent.

 RETURN VALUE    [Toc]    [Back]
      -1             No servers were contacted, or the server specified by
                     the -H switch could not be contacted.

      0              Success.

      1              Some, but not all, servers were successfully contacted.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      This example pings all replicas of the default domain:

           nisping

      Note that this example will not ping the the org_dir and group_dir
      subdirectories within this domain.

      This example pings the server example which is a replica of the
      org_dir.foo.com. directory:

           nisping -H example org_dir.foo.com.

      This example checkpoints all servers of the org_dir.bar.com.
      directory.

           nisping -C org_dir.bar.com.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    Environment Variables
      NIS_PATH       If this variable is set, and the NIS+ directory name is
                     not fully qualified, each directory specified will be
                     searched until the directory is found.



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 nisping(1M)                                                     nisping(1M)




 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      HP-UX 11i Version 2 is the last HP-UX release on which NIS+ is
      supported.

      LDAP is the recommended replacement for NIS+.  HP fully supports the
      industry standard naming services based on LDAP.

 AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]
      nisping was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      crontab(1), nisdefaults(1), nislog(1M), nisfiles(4).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 3 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003