[TriLUG] Small Network User Management

[Chris Hedemark]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On Wednesday, April 23, 2003, at 02:08 PM, Tarus Balog wrote:

> But I have another question. I want to set up a way to manage a group 
> of
> users on a small group of about ten machines. I want a common home
> directory (nfs or smbfs), username and password.
>
> I really don't want to set up LDAP or anything like that, and I would 
> be
> happy just copying files from one machine to another (like passwd, 
> group,
> etc) since I won't be adding users very often, and there won't be many 
> of
> them.

To be honest, LDAP is probably less work in the long run than copying 
files back and forth.  I'm using LDAP for about 25-30 Linux boxen for 
user authentication and automounting of home directories via NFS.  The 
initial config is the toughest part because you're wrapping your brain 
around a very new concept.

Maintenance is pretty easy.  I've been using gq as my primary 
administration tool.  I fall back on directory_administrator simply for 
changing passwords.  The LDAP based automount stuff is sweeeet 
especially when you get wildcards working :)   I had some initial 
problems with it under Red Hat but it is working well now.

OpenLDAP comes with some migration scripts that are worth looking at, 
both to reduce your migration effort and to show you how LDIF's work.

- --

(See mail headers for more info)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary 
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (Darwin)

iEYEARECAAYFAj6m4pUACgkQYPuF4Zq9lvbM3gCg6ufpo1AMI/NidS3uBE6oNZTI
jlUAn2QUHoEM/+KehbEl7aX/+2Bcu72f
=iLIH
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----