[nzlug] General server/client enquiry

[Nevyn]

On Feb 12, 2008 1:58 PM, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
> Roland Hill <rolandh at ak.planet.gen.nz> writes:
>
> > I recently got tired of having addresses spread across PC's and
> > different applications, so I installed openldap and use that as my
> > central address store.
> >
> > My network is purely at home; 1 x server and 1 x client, each running
> > Linux.
> >
> > I just wondered what people do when they deploy a number of Linux
> > clients with respect to user accounts and /home storage (assuming no
> > virtual users etc).
>
> Oh, this answer is going to please you:
>
> > i.e how do you deploy each client to have multiple user accounts
> > without setting them up individually each time? Do people use NIS for
> > this or even ldap?
>
> Yes.
>
> > I assume central storage of /home/$USER can be achieved with NFS.
>
> Yes, sometimes.
>
> > I'm in the mood for learning and playing on my home network. Any
> > pointers would be appreciated.
>
> The range of options we consider for deployment, or I have used
> previously, include:
>
> NSS data in:
>  * passwd (per machine)
>  * passwd managed by cfengine or puppet
>  * NIS
>  * LDAP
>  * LDAP via Active Directory
>
> Password data / auth via:
>  * passwd (per machine)
>  * passwd managed by cfengine or puppet
>  * NIS
>  * LDAP
>  * Radius
>  * Kerberos (direct, or via AD)
>  * third party commercial solution (RSA tokens, etc)
>
> * File storage (typically in some combination of...):
>  * per-machine
>  * central NFSv3 storage
>  * central NFSv4 storage
>  * NFS / CIFS via NetApp or equivalent NAS
>  * AFS
>  * Windows server via CIFS
>
>
> In other words: the area is complex, the cost/benefit of each choice can
> be hard to understand or quantify, and almost every site is different.
>
> If you are looking to learn things that are generally useful I advise
> roughly this order of things:
>
>  * learn LDAP for NSS and auth
>  * learn Kerberos for auth (with LDAP NSS)
>  * learn about puppet and cfengine
>  * learn NFSv3
>  * learn AFS
>
> Regards,
>         Daniel

I really really really hate sounding dense... but what is NSS Data??