A Comprehensive Solution for NIS Migration

Vintela Authentication Services - Migrating from NIS to Active Directory

Since Active Directory is at the center of many organizations’ identity and access management strategies, migrating NIS authentication to AD is a highly attractive option. To achieve this end, an integration solution—such as Vintela Authentication Services from Quest Software—is required. Vintela Authentication Services is the pioneer, market leader, and ongoing innovator in this space. Quest was the first to offer an AD-based alternative to NIS and continues to lead with the most robust set of NIS migration options and the most powerful collection of capabilities to facilitate the migration and manage NIS data. Vintela Authentication Services:

• Provides all of the tools necessary to migrate NIS data to Active Directory
• Provides all of the tools necessary to manage NIS data within Active Directory
• Provides all of the tools necessary to retrieve NIS data stored in Active Directory
• Makes NIS migrations easy with powerful tools to cover every facet of the migration and a full range of implementation requirements

For more information on the NIS migration capabilities offered by Vintela Authentication Services please refer to the Quest Software Technical Brief titled Vintela Authentication Services - A Comprehensive Solution for NIS Migration.

Tools for NIS Migration

Vintela Authentication Services makes it easy to move existing NIS data into Active Directory. NIS migrations are smoother through the collection of powerful tools that help move data from one store (NIS) to another (AD). These tools include:

• Flexible Interfaces for NIS Migration—Vintela Authentication Services provides both a GUI-based migration tool and script-based alternatives. 
• Support for LDIF—Vintela Authentication Services supports Unix-side scripting for NIS migration. This functionality allows scripts on the NIS master to update Active Directory at the same time the NIS master is updated.
• AD-to-NIS Change Synchronization—Vintela Authentication Services includes a syncronization utility that allows NIS and Active Directory to run in parallel, providing a means for organizations to maintain NIS and Active Directory environments together for as long as they need to.  

Tools for Managing NIS Data

Vintela Authentication Services includes a powerful console for managing NIS data once it has been migrated to Active Directory. Of all the options available for NIS data management, only the Vintela Authentication Services NIS management console seamlessly snaps into the existing Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) console.

• NIS Management Tool that Snaps Into ADUC—the intuitive Vintela Authentication Services NIS data management tool seamlessly snaps into the standard ADUC for more efficient management of NIS data in AD. This integration provides a common management interface for both Windows data stored in Active Directory and Unix/NIS data stored in the new RFC 2307 fields added by Microsoft in the AD schema with the “R2” release.
• Unix-side Tool for Managing NIS Data—as with Vintela Authentication Services’ NIS migration tools, NIS management is also available through scripting and Unix client-side tools. These tools fully support LDIF, which gives users the confidence that existing scripts will simply work with AD through Vintela Authentication Services.
• Secure Traffic—Vintela Authentication Services overcomes the major security deficiencies of NIS by providing secured traffic between Unix systems and Active Directory via encryption. Vintela Authentication Services enables industry standards such as Kerberos and LDAP to securely retrieve and serve NIS data to expecting NIS clients.
• Delegation of Rights—Vintela Authentication Services provides the ability to delegate the right to modify NIS objects and attributes. This functionality ensures that only appropriate teams perform maintenance of NIS data.

Tools for Retrieving NIS Data

Vintela Authentication Services includes a number of features that facilitate the process of non-Windows clients retrieving NIS data from Active Directory. These capabilities round out the NIS migration picture by actually allowing Unix systems to “see” NIS data within AD. Key tools and features include:

• Unix Systems Become “Full Citizens” in Active Directory—All data transmitted between the Unix system and AD—for example LDAP queries and authentication attempts—are encrypted with Kerberos.
• Site-aware—Vintela Authentication Services leverages the existing AD topology and points non-Windows systems to the domain controllers that are closest to them.
• Auto-detection and Failover—Vintela Authentication Services auto-detects domain controllers through DNS and will auto-failover if a domain controller goes down.
• Full Support on Every Platform—Only Vintela Authentication Services offers a NIS proxy for each and every platform it supports for complete migration, management, and retrieval capabilities across all affected Unix systems.
• Caching—Vintela Authentication Services’ reduces the amount of traffic as well as the number of queries against Active Directory. It also provides fault tolerance in cases where Active Directory cannot be contacted. NIS map information can still be served to the Unix client.
• Granular Control Over NIS Maps— Only Vintela Authentication Services provides granular control over where in Active Directory NIS clients pull data for specific NIS maps.
• Netgroups Served Through NSS—this unique and advanced capability of Vintela Authentication Services allows Netgroups to be serviced entirely by the Vintela Authentication Services NSS module. This simplifies installation and configuration by eliminating the need to use the NIS Proxy for netgroup information.