This is probably the easiest thing I’ve done with FreeBSD yet.

As root, edit /etc/rc.conf and add the following 2 lines:

nisdomainname=”yourNISdomain”
nis_client_enable=”YES”

Then, edit your /etc/master.passwd (type: vipw) and add the following to the end:

+:::::::::

That tells passwd to consult NIS for users as well as any you’ve defined in your passwd file.

Then edit your /etc/group so we can also find groups from NIS. Add the following to the end:

+:*::

Now heres the trick – I’m not sure how to start ypbind without rebooting, so I had to reboot. Then I could log in and do:

ypcat passwd
and
ypcat group

and was able to see all my NIS users and groups! Man was that easy!