LDAP and NIS directory services associate identifiers with users, groups, devices, volumes, folders, and other network resources. This functionality enables administrators to specify policies for access on a broad basis, rather than explicitly on a per-resource basis, and have this information accessible throughout the network.
LDAP directory services
LDAP directory services provide user and group information retrieval, name service resolution, and FTP user authentication. Although LDAP and NIS directory services are supported, LDAP is more reliable and scalable than NIS and includes the following advantages:
- Improved accuracy, due to more frequent data synchronization of current and replicated data.
- Communications encryption using TLS.
- Authentication of connections to the LDAP database instead of anonymous access to NIS databases.
NIS directory services
NIS databases provide simple management and administration of Unix-based networks. These databases can provide details about users and groups, and also individual client machines (including the IP address and host name), to facilitate authentication for users logging in to clients on the network.
NIS directory services can provide the following features:
- NFS user and group account information retrieval.
- Name services for resolving host names to IP addresses.
- FTP user authentication.