Rather odd NIS problem

Rather odd NIS problem

[Paul Furness]

Hello.

I have a reccuring problem with NIS. My main production NIS server won't
let me change any passwords. The system is a completely new system which
I have built from the ground up to replace the old, failing one. It is
based around RedHat 7.3 with updates; the kernel version is
2.4.18-24.7.x, ypserv is version 2.5-2.7x, ypbind is 1.10-7, and
yp-tools is 2.6-4.

Although the setup (in terms of the files which are shared) is the same
as the original system (which did work ok), the config files are the new
default ones, edited by me. Also, I have needed to edit the Makefile in
/var/yp so as to share the correct things as the correct names. The
changes I made were based on comparing the old files with the new ones,
so I didn't simply copy all the old stuff into the new places.

Anyhow, ypserv, ypbind and yppasswdd all start fine, and the domain is
shared correctly and works. I have moved everything over to using this
domain, and removed the old NIS server. Everything else works fine, but
when I try and change a user's password, this happens:

# yppasswd furnesp
Changing NIS account information for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
Please enter root password:
Changing NIS password for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
Please enter new password: 
Please retype new password:
Error while changing the NIS password.
The NIS password has not been changed on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
#

(obviosly, I enter the appropriate passwords when prompted!)

If I try to "su - user" first, I still get the same output (asking for
user's old password instead of root password).

Incidentally, I did wonder if the password I was using was too simple,
but the problem happens with very strong passwords as well.

It may or may not affect it, but I am not using passwd or group file in
/etc; all the files are in /var/yp/ypfiles. I have edited the
configuration in the Makefile to take account of this, and it works
fine. If I manually enter a new user into /var/yp/ypfiles/passwd, and
copy/paste a password from an existing account into the password field,
then do a make, the new user account appears correctly in the NIS, and
the password works. Oh, and I am not using a shadow file at all.


For brevity, I haven't copied the Makefile to this email, but below is
/etc/ypserv.conf and yp.conf. If anyone wants to look at the Makefile,
I'll send it to you off list.

Has anyone seen this problem before?

Tks.

Paul.

-----------

yp.conf:
 <SNIP>

domain vilnis broadcast

</SNIP>

ypserv.conf:
<SNIP>

dns: no

files: 30

xfr_check_port: yes

# Host                     : Domain  : Map              : Security

*                          : *       : *                : none
</SNIP>



---------------

-- 
Paul Furness

Systems Manager
Visual Information Lab
Mitsubsihi Electric ITE BV
Guildford, UK
 __________________________________________________________
|  Fight Spam! Join EuroCAUCE: http://www.euro.cauce.org/  |
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Re: Rather odd NIS problem

[Yu Chen]

Looks like the same problem I had once. On NIS server do a ps -ef|grep yp,
see how yppasswdd is run, in your case, it should be something like
rpc.yppasswdd -D /var/yp
if not, you should tell yppasswdd where is your files, edit
/etc/sysconfig/yppasswdd

Hope this will help!

===========================================
Yu Chen
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of Maryland at Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250

phone: 	(410)455-6347
	(410)455-2718
fax: 	(410)455-1174
email: 	chen@hhmi.umbc.edu
===========================================

On 19 Mar 2003, Paul Furness wrote:

> Hello.
>
> I have a reccuring problem with NIS. My main production NIS server won't
> let me change any passwords. The system is a completely new system which
> I have built from the ground up to replace the old, failing one. It is
> based around RedHat 7.3 with updates; the kernel version is
> 2.4.18-24.7.x, ypserv is version 2.5-2.7x, ypbind is 1.10-7, and
> yp-tools is 2.6-4.
>
> Although the setup (in terms of the files which are shared) is the same
> as the original system (which did work ok), the config files are the new
> default ones, edited by me. Also, I have needed to edit the Makefile in
> /var/yp so as to share the correct things as the correct names. The
> changes I made were based on comparing the old files with the new ones,
> so I didn't simply copy all the old stuff into the new places.
>
> Anyhow, ypserv, ypbind and yppasswdd all start fine, and the domain is
> shared correctly and works. I have moved everything over to using this
> domain, and removed the old NIS server. Everything else works fine, but
> when I try and change a user's password, this happens:
>
> # yppasswd furnesp
> Changing NIS account information for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> Please enter root password:
> Changing NIS password for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> Please enter new password:
> Please retype new password:
> Error while changing the NIS password.
> The NIS password has not been changed on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> #
>
> (obviosly, I enter the appropriate passwords when prompted!)
>
> If I try to "su - user" first, I still get the same output (asking for
> user's old password instead of root password).
>
> Incidentally, I did wonder if the password I was using was too simple,
> but the problem happens with very strong passwords as well.
>
> It may or may not affect it, but I am not using passwd or group file in
> /etc; all the files are in /var/yp/ypfiles. I have edited the
> configuration in the Makefile to take account of this, and it works
> fine. If I manually enter a new user into /var/yp/ypfiles/passwd, and
> copy/paste a password from an existing account into the password field,
> then do a make, the new user account appears correctly in the NIS, and
> the password works. Oh, and I am not using a shadow file at all.
>
>
> For brevity, I haven't copied the Makefile to this email, but below is
> /etc/ypserv.conf and yp.conf. If anyone wants to look at the Makefile,
> I'll send it to you off list.
>
> Has anyone seen this problem before?
>
> Tks.
>
> Paul.
>
> -----------
>
> yp.conf:
>  <SNIP>
>
> domain vilnis broadcast
>
> </SNIP>
>
> ypserv.conf:
> <SNIP>
>
> dns: no
>
> files: 30
>
> xfr_check_port: yes
>
> # Host                     : Domain  : Map              : Security
>
> *                          : *       : *                : none
> </SNIP>
>
>
>
> ---------------
>
> --
> Paul Furness
>
> Systems Manager
> Visual Information Lab
> Mitsubsihi Electric ITE BV
> Guildford, UK
>  __________________________________________________________
> |  Fight Spam! Join EuroCAUCE: http://www.euro.cauce.org/  |
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: Rather odd NIS problem

[Paul Furness]

Thanks, that fixed it. I know it sounds stupid, but it didn't occur to
me that yppasswdd had a configuration file. Man, I must be asleep. :)

Paul.


On Wed, 2003-03-19 at 13:54, Yu Chen wrote:
> Looks like the same problem I had once. On NIS server do a ps -ef|grep yp,
> see how yppasswdd is run, in your case, it should be something like
> rpc.yppasswdd -D /var/yp
> if not, you should tell yppasswdd where is your files, edit
> /etc/sysconfig/yppasswdd
> 
> Hope this will help!
> 
> ===========================================
> Yu Chen
> Howard Hughes Medical Institute
> University of Maryland at Baltimore County
> 1000 Hilltop Circle
> Baltimore, MD 21250
> 
> phone: 	(410)455-6347
> 	(410)455-2718
> fax: 	(410)455-1174
> email: 	chen@hhmi.umbc.edu
> ===========================================
> 
> On 19 Mar 2003, Paul Furness wrote:
> 
> > Hello.
> >
> > I have a reccuring problem with NIS. My main production NIS server won't
> > let me change any passwords. The system is a completely new system which
> > I have built from the ground up to replace the old, failing one. It is
> > based around RedHat 7.3 with updates; the kernel version is
> > 2.4.18-24.7.x, ypserv is version 2.5-2.7x, ypbind is 1.10-7, and
> > yp-tools is 2.6-4.
> >
> > Although the setup (in terms of the files which are shared) is the same
> > as the original system (which did work ok), the config files are the new
> > default ones, edited by me. Also, I have needed to edit the Makefile in
> > /var/yp so as to share the correct things as the correct names. The
> > changes I made were based on comparing the old files with the new ones,
> > so I didn't simply copy all the old stuff into the new places.
> >
> > Anyhow, ypserv, ypbind and yppasswdd all start fine, and the domain is
> > shared correctly and works. I have moved everything over to using this
> > domain, and removed the old NIS server. Everything else works fine, but
> > when I try and change a user's password, this happens:
> >
> > # yppasswd furnesp
> > Changing NIS account information for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> > Please enter root password:
> > Changing NIS password for furnesp on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> > Please enter new password:
> > Please retype new password:
> > Error while changing the NIS password.
> > The NIS password has not been changed on antonia.vil.ite.mee.com.
> > #
> >
> > (obviosly, I enter the appropriate passwords when prompted!)
> >
> > If I try to "su - user" first, I still get the same output (asking for
> > user's old password instead of root password).
> >
> > Incidentally, I did wonder if the password I was using was too simple,
> > but the problem happens with very strong passwords as well.
> >
> > It may or may not affect it, but I am not using passwd or group file in
> > /etc; all the files are in /var/yp/ypfiles. I have edited the
> > configuration in the Makefile to take account of this, and it works
> > fine. If I manually enter a new user into /var/yp/ypfiles/passwd, and
> > copy/paste a password from an existing account into the password field,
> > then do a make, the new user account appears correctly in the NIS, and
> > the password works. Oh, and I am not using a shadow file at all.
> >
> >
> > For brevity, I haven't copied the Makefile to this email, but below is
> > /etc/ypserv.conf and yp.conf. If anyone wants to look at the Makefile,
> > I'll send it to you off list.
> >
> > Has anyone seen this problem before?
> >
> > Tks.
> >
> > Paul.
> >
> > -----------
> >
> > yp.conf:
> >  <SNIP>
> >
> > domain vilnis broadcast
> >
> > </SNIP>
> >
> > ypserv.conf:
> > <SNIP>
> >
> > dns: no
> >
> > files: 30
> >
> > xfr_check_port: yes
> >
> > # Host                     : Domain  : Map              : Security
> >
> > *                          : *       : *                : none
> > </SNIP>
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------
> >
> > --
> > Paul Furness
> >
> > Systems Manager
> > Visual Information Lab
> > Mitsubsihi Electric ITE BV
> > Guildford, UK
> >  __________________________________________________________
> > |  Fight Spam! Join EuroCAUCE: http://www.euro.cauce.org/  |
> >  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> >
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
-- 
Paul Furness

Systems Manager
Visual Information Lab
Mitsubsihi Electric ITE BV
Guildford, UK
 __________________________________________________________
|  Fight Spam! Join EuroCAUCE: http://www.euro.cauce.org/  |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~