TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT

TITLE:              PTF642 - Fixes for the NIS Server and Library 
DOCUMENT ID:        TID300116
DOCUMENT REVISION:  B
DATE:               25JAN95
ALERT STATUS:       Yellow
INFORMATION TYPE:   Symptom Solution
README FOR:         PTF642

PRODUCT and VERSION:
UnixWare 1.1

ABSTRACT:

The ptf642 file contains PTF642. This update improves the performance 
of the NIS server process (ypserv) and fixes problems determining port 
numbers in the NIS tcp/ip libraries.  The NIS server has been reconfigured 
to allow UDP as the default protocol.  The NIS server was also reconfigured 
so that it can monitor more file descriptors, i.e. process more simultaneous 
requests.  Another change to the NIS server removed redundant checks of 
the map name alias database.  The alias database allows map names longer 
than the maximum file name length of the file system.

SYMPTOM

Patch needed to improve performance of the NIS Server.

SOLUTION

Apply the ptf642 file.


Installation Instructions:

DATATYPE: datastream

1.  Download the ptf642.Z and ptf642.txt files to the /tmp directory
    on your machine.

2.  Read the release notes contained in this file.

3.  Now become root, uncompress the file and add the package to your 
    system using the following commands:

     $ su
     # uncompress /tmp/ptf642.Z
     # pkgadd -d /tmp/ptf642 ptf642

Solution Specifics


General Description
-------------------
These release notes acquaint you with the contents of the UnixWare 
PTF642 patch for UnixWare.  This update improves the performance of 
the NIS server process (ypserv) and fixes problems determining port 
numbers in the NIS tcp/ip libraries.

New Features
------------
The NIS server has been reconfigured to allow UDP as the default 
protocol to use for NIS requests.  The UDP protocol is faster than 
TCP because it does not have the overhead of a virtual circuit.  
The NIS server was also reconfigured so that it can monitor more 
file descriptors, i.e. process more simultaneous requests. Another 
change to the NIS server removed redundant checks of the map name 
alias database.  The alias database allows map names longer than 
the maximum file name length of the file system.

The 'tcpip_nis.so' library has been updated to fix a problem it had 
resolving service names into port numbers.

Software Notes and Recommendations
----------------------------------
The NIS server (ypserv) is contained in the Remote Procedure Calls 
Utilities (rpc) package.  The 'rpc' package must be installed before 
ptf642 is installed.

Hardware Notes and Recommendations
----------------------------------
None

Installation instructions
-------------------------
Place the diskette in the drive, and at the shell prompt type

     pkgadd -d diskette1

Or use the desktop installation procedure.  After the package has been
successfully installed, reboot the machine to restart the NIS server by
executing:

     cd /
     shutdown -i6 -y -g0

     Or by clicking the 'shutdown' icon on the desktop.

Troubleshooting
---------------
If the 'truss' command is present on your system, you may use it to monitor
the performance of the NIS server (ypserv).  Start truss on the server machine
with:

     # truss -t open -p <serverpid>

Where '<serverpid>' is the process id of the ypserv process.  You may find
this process id by running the 'ps -e' command.

After the truss command is started, execute NIS requests from a client.  Watch
which files get opened by the server.  The server in this patch should only
open a file when it gets a request from a new map.

When you have finished monitoring the server, kill the 'truss' process by
hitting the interrupt key (DEL).