ONTAP uses name-services to obtain information about users and clients. This information is used to authenticate users accessing data on or administering the storage system, and to map user credentials in a mixed environment. If the user database is stored in NIS or LDAP servers, NIS and LDAP name services need to be configured in ONTAP. DNS is used for resolving the hostnames. ns-switch is used to configure the SVMs with sources to search for network information and the order in which to search them.