How many slaves do I need, if their only function is to answer the clients questions when the master server is unavailable?
• A: Slaves have different tasks. To answer the client’s requests is one of them. But they don’t do so only when the master server isn’t available, but also when the master is working. Slaves are, from the clients’ perspective, full fledged NIS servers. They have all the (hopefully same) answers that the master server has. While the master is running, slaves provide a duty balance, since (master) servers under heavy load will probably not be the fastest to answer the clients’ broadcasts. The first server that answers the client’s request will be the one that the client binds itself to.
