What Is NetInfo?
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When the user logs in to a computer running Mac OS X, the login process on that computer
consults the local NetInfo domain on that computer. If the user’s record is found, the user is
granted access to the computer.
After login, if the user chooses Connect To Server from the Go menu to access a computer
running Mac OS X Server, the local domain
on the server
is consulted to authenticate the
user. Again, if a record for the user is found, the user is granted access to the server.
When you first set up a Mac OS X computer, its local NetInfo domain is automatically created
and populated with records. For example, a user record is created for the user who
performed the installation. It contains the user name and password entered during setup, as
well as other information, such as a UID and the location of the user’s home directory.
Shared Data
While any process running on a Mac OS X computer can use the data stored in its local
domain, the real power of NetInfo is that it lets you share administrative data among multiple
Mac OS X computers by storing it in shared domains. When a computer is configured to use
a shared domain, any administrative data in the shared domain is
also
visible to processes
running on that computer.
If a user’s record is not found in the local domain of a Mac OS X computer, a NetInfo process
automatically searches for the user’s record in any shared domains that the computer has
access to. In the following example, the user can access both computers because the shared
domain accessible from both computers contains a record for the user.
Local
NetInfo
domain
Local
NetInfo
domain
Log in to
Mac OS X Connect to
Mac OS
X Server
Local
NetInfo
domain
Local
NetInfo
domain
Shared
domain
Log in to
Mac OS X Connect to
Mac OS
X Server