Last year I posted I had written some new internet drafts designed to replace NIS and which would be the next evolution of RFC2307 (a standard describing how to represent NIS data in LDAP).
DBIS is now a reality. I have just completed a fully working reference implementation, and I would encourage anyone who works with NIS or the same data in LDAP to take a look and try it out:
dbis | SourceForge.net
DBIS brings with it a number of advantages, but its greatest feature (I think) is its ability to pull together a map from multiple locations in LDAP optionally applying transformations and conditions dynamically. This means, for example, that different business groups in your organisation can have tailored maps, but from a single source. You could have entries that only appear on a subset of hosts, or entries that are edited to look slightly different on a group of hosts. This also means there is more flexibility in the way you define your maps, so rather than having the content of a single map in one place, you can split them by business group or function. This could underpin a self-service application, for example.
DBIS builds on to the LDAP schema first introduced by RFC2307 but crucially does not modify any of the original definitions. It is therefore quite easy to migrate from RFC2307 to DBIS or run DBIS alongside RFC2307 on the same LDAP server. It is more closely compatible with NIS, esp. in respect to case sensitivity, meaning that it should also be easier to migrate from NIS to DBIS than it was to migrate from NIS to RFC2307.
Best regards,
Mark.