[wplug] "roaming profiles" in linux..

[Bill Moran]

techmike wrote:
> The furthest I've gotten in the past setting up NFS was all the linux 
> boxes could browse the "server".  The NIS part is actually what I got 
> stuck on.  I found a walkthrough back then for it which completely 
> behooved me.
> 
> I'm all for centralized user accounts, we have a lot of employees come and 
> go.  As it is now, even adding and removing accounts from 2 or 3 machines 
> can be chaotic.
> 
> Think one of the other options would be easier to implement?

I haven't actually tried this yet ...

But it seems that Fedora looks for an LDAP server at install time, in an
attempt to automatically configure it if possible.  LDAP has come a long
way since the last time I messed with it, and setting up an LDAP server
isn't _that_ terribly hard (although I'm sure you'll find it challenging).
Once the server is set up and the clients configured to use it, there are
a number of GUI tools for managing the LDAP user database (I don't have
any links at the moment, but I'm sure a google search will turn up some)

OpenLDAP even has a fairly simple system for adding redundancy (by
setting up a second LDAP server and replicating the database) so it's
a pretty good solution, all said and done.

NIS, on the other hand, is a little more "rough".  The advantage is,
however, once you've got it set up, you use standard UNIX tools that
you're already familiar with for managing users.  NIS also has a system
for setting up backup NIS servers, in my experience it works pretty well.

I can't comment on Kerberos ...

In the long run, you're probably in good hands with LDAP, as it seems
people are moving away from NIS and toward LDAP, so support is probably
going to get better over time.

> 
> Thanks
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com>
> To: General user list <wplug at wplug.org>
> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:23:39 -0500
> Subject: Re: [wplug] "roaming profiles" in linux..
> 
> 
>>techmike wrote:
>>
>>>I know this has been posted before, but I know a bit more about linux
>>
>>then 
>>
>>>I did last time I attempted this project.
>>>
>>>I'm sure there are good walkthroughs for this out there, so feel free
>>
>>to 
>>
>>>point me in the right direction.
>>>
>>>We have about 12 computers on our lan running Redhat 8/9 (mostly 9). 
>>
>>Not 
>>
>>>all users use the same desk.  How could we setup a "roaming profile"
>>
>>type 
>>
>>>system where all user accounts and home folders are stored on a
>>
>>central 
>>
>>>system.
>>>
>>>This central system cannot be a M$ machine due to me having no budget
>>
>>to 
>>
>>>work with.  :)
>>>
>>>Last time I attempted this I was looking into setting up NFS on the 
>>>"server", but failed misreably.
>>>
>>>Any guidence is greatly appreceated.
>>
>>While there _may_ be other ways to do it, I would suggest NFS, with the
>>/home directory mounted on the server, as well as some system of
>>centralized
>>user accounting (LDAP or NIS or Kerberos)
>>
>>With Red Hat, it seems like the default packet filter rules block NFS,
>>so you'll probably have to tweak your packet filters in order for NFS
>>to work.  If you don't use centralized user accounts, you'll need to
>>ensure that each machine has the same user/groupname <-> user/groupid
>>mapping, or permissions won't work right.  Depending on how many
>>machines you have, that's an administrative nightmare.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com