Roaming users on RH

[Barry]

Hi all,

This should probably go in the Newbie fourm but I am not sure...

I have a really basic question but I am not sure where to start to find out the answer!!!

I have 3 Linux machines 1 running Redhat 9 and 2 running Redhat 7.3. The Redhat 9 machine is used as a file server and the 7.3 machines are used for running analysis jobs.

How do I set up the file server (Redhat 9 machine) to serve usernames and passwords? All I want to do is add all users to this machine then be able to log on to both of the 7.3 machines with these user names.

In the future I will be adding more 7.3 machines and they will need to be able to user the usernames as well.

Thanks in advance for you help.

Barry....

[scinerd]

There are a few way to do this. You could have one password and shadow file and use something like rsync or rdist to copy them to the other servers. The advantage to rsync is you can do it over ssh and it would be more secure then other options.

Ldap is also nice but I don't know to much about it. I also don't think it's the easyest thing to setup but someone who has done it would know better.

Most people use nis aka yp. on one server you use it as a master(ypserv). The other machines you setup as clients(ypbind). Then you can add a user to the master server and the accounts get shared out to the clients. If you also share out there homes via nfs then they can log into any machine with the same account and home dir. Here is a link the redhat manuals The security one looks to have some info on nis but it's pretty easy to setup. https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/
this might also help
http://www.isi.edu/~weiye/system/guide/nisnfs.html

[Digit0]

Or use Samba as a PDC or you can make the work machines thin clients (or thick so ther's not that much pressure on the server) or even a <slashdot>Bewoulf Cluster!</slashdot> ;)

Sorry to lazy to place links but the little search bar just below just linux or google will spew loads of info on it.

edit: I would personaly go via the NFS or SAMBA/PDC

[scinerd]

I thought about samba but in this case he lists all linux clients where samba is realy for a linux to windows thing. I would setup nis then have samba share out the nfs shares and accounts if needed.

I should also say Kerberos is another option. It's covered in the redhat doc Reference Guide. I have never used it but have met people who love it.

[Barry]

Hi,

Thanks all, I think that I am going to set up a NIS server and NIS clients. I have downloaded the HOW TO from TLDP and will let you know how I get on.

Thanks Again

Barry..