Configuring dscacheutil Search Order

I'm trying to introduce a new dual hexacore mac to our UNIX lab as an NIS client. After a lot of pain, I got autofs and NIS authentication to work. But now, it doesn't use NIS for name service and I cannot see anything corresponding to the standard /etc/nsswitch.conf file on it. How does one configure name service lookup order on MAC OSX Lion? I need the search order to be local flatfile, followed by NIS, followed by DNS. I really don't want to modify /etc/resolv.conf unless there is no other option. The documentation is annoyingly outdated and irrelevant, so any help would be a lifeserver!