To: System Administrators of Unix / Linux devices
Subject: Retirement of IRIS NIS service in EECS

IRIS NIS (Network Information Services)  allows Unix computers to look up IRIS usernames, groups, passwords and other information from IRIS NIS servers.

Dating back to before the creation of IRIS, NIS service has been supported in the EECS Department.   Now, IRIS provides the LDAP protocol as a replacement for NIS. This is now our supported service for distributing Unix username, password and group data. IRIS LDAP service features  multiple redundant servers, and is updated in real-time with user account data.

We are therefore announcing the retirement of NIS services on December 1, 2020.  Until that time we will continue to maintain the infrastructure for NIS and will keep the data updated.  After that date, the ypserv processes on the NIS slave servers will be shut down. We will continue to maintain netgroup data internally for the purpose of controlling NFS exports.

All Unix / Linux system administrators who manage servers that use NIS should start to think about transitioning to LDAP. Please see our online documentation on configuring the system security services daemon (sssd) to use LDAP.
If your group will need an extension,  or if you have any other questions about this change, please contact the IRIS Helpdesk as soon as possible with your concerns.

Beginning in the summer of 2020, we will begin directly contacting the system administrators of devices which are still using our NIS servers. Please be sure your network devices have an accurate system administrator email address listed in the IRIS Network database.

References

• Network Information Services (wikipedia)
• System Services Security Daemon (sssd) (wikipedia)