Note – this only sets up the system to use user and group logons, not automounting home directories. I haven’t figured out how to make this work in Ubuntu 16.
Install package nis
Probably a good idea to set network address statically in /etc/network/interfaces (NetworkManager should recognise this and then leave it alone)
Probably also a good idea to check that /etc/hosts has the domain name for the system, i.e.
127.0.1.1 domain.name.machinename machinename
Add yp server to /etc/yp.conf
Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf to add nis for passwd, group and shadow. Note that compat should include nis by default.
Add a dependency to make the rpcbind service start at boot
systemctl add-wants multi-user.target rpcbind.service
(See this Debian bug report or this Ubuntu one)
Note that this is not a complete fix – it is reported that if the network does not come up fast enough things still break.
For users that need to log on to the system, create home directories
mkhomedir_helper <username>
Remember to reboot to check everything is working:
yptest
if that fails check if the bind services are running
systemctl status rpcbind systemctl status ypbind
