Network Information Services password database appears to be corrupted after you configure password synchronization in Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 (891764)

SYMPTOMS

When you configure password synchronization with a Network Information Services (NIS) domain in Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 3.5, the password database file, passwd, may appear to be corrupted.

In this scenario, password changes may not appear to correctly propagate throughout the NIS domain.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if the following conditions are true:

You set the USE_NIS flag to 1 in the Windows Services for UNIX /etc/sso.conf configuration file.
Multiple back-to-back password changes occur.

When a password change occurs in Windows Services for UNIX 3.5, the make -f Makefile command is run to regenerate the passwd map. In a scenario where multiple back-to-back password changes occur, the make -f Makefile command is called multiple times, and the passwd map is regenerated multiple times. Therefore, the NIS client might receive data that is out of sequence.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

Modify the sso.conf file to set the USE_NIS flag to zero (0).
Configure a cron job to synchronize the NIS passwd database at a particular interval, or manually synchronize the NIS passwd database after all the password changes have been completed.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to schedule a cron job, type man cron at a terminal window in UNIX.

For additional information about Windows Services for UNIX 3.5, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sfu/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/default.mspx

For additional information about how to use Windows Services for UNIX to synchronize passwords with a NIS Domain, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

312946 How to use services for UNIX to synchronize passwords with a NIS domain