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System Manager Classic

About ONTAP name service switch configuration in System Manager - ONTAP 9.7 and earlier

Contributors netapp-aoife

ONTAP System Manager classic (available in ONTAP 9.7 and earlier) stores name service configuration information in a table that is the equivalent of the /etc/nsswitch.conf file on UNIX systems. You must understand the function of the table and how ONTAP uses it so that you can configure it appropriately for your environment.

The ONTAP name service switch table determines which name service sources ONTAP consults in which order to retrieve information for a certain type of name service information. ONTAP maintains a separate name service switch table for each SVM.

Database types

The table stores a separate name service list for each of the following database types:

Database type Defines name service sources for…​ Valid sources are…​

hosts

Converting host names to IP addresses

files, dns

group

Looking up user group information

files, nis, ldap

passwd

Looking up user information

files, nis, ldap

netgroup

Looking up netgroup information

files, nis, ldap

namemap

Mapping user names

files, ldap

Source types

The sources specify which name service source to use for retrieving the appropriate information.

Specify source type…​ To look up information in…​ Managed by the command families…​

files

Local source files

vserver services name-service unix-user

vserver services name-service unix-group

vserver services name-service netgroup

vserver services name-service dns hosts

nis

External NIS servers as specified in the NIS domain configuration of the SVM

vserver services name-service nis-domain

ldap

External LDAP servers as specified in the LDAP client configuration of the SVM

vserver services name-service ldap

dns

External DNS servers as specified in the DNS configuration of the SVM

vserver services name-service dns

Even if you plan to use NIS or LDAP for both data access and SVM administration authentication, you should still include files and configure local users as a fallback in case NIS or LDAP authentication fails.

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