How to get user directories in NIS

rajesh.bahl · 08-23-2009, 01:01 PM

Hi !

I set up NIS server and client on machines running CentOS 5.3. Now at the client any user can log in ( the user is actually at NIS server i.e central server )properly. The issue is that after getting logged into the NIS server, the user is not getting its home directory ( i.e. the home directory situated at the central server ).

How to get the same ? Can some one help ?

rajesh.bahl

kenneho · 08-24-2009, 01:55 AM

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but have you looked into automount?

vishesh · 08-24-2009, 02:14 AM

Have you configured NFS and autofs. Export your home directory using NFS and then configure autofs to mount it on login.

thnks

uteck · 08-24-2009, 12:28 PM

Are you sure you want /home on NFS? If you use Firefox 3 or higher, then you will see problems since FF does not run well over NFS. We made a script to rsync users .mozilla to /tmp then link their .mozilla to /tmp to make FF work properly. When they log out, stuff goes in reverse and any changes are copied back to NFS.

kenneho · 08-25-2009, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uteck

If you use Firefox 3 or higher, then you will see problems since FF does not run well over NFS.

I wasn't aware of this myself. How come it doesn't work proprely?

rajesh.bahl · 08-25-2009, 02:38 AM

The NIS server is having NFS operational with /home directory exported.

Except this no other configuration has been done on server/client. Do I need to carry out any other configuration ?

rajesh.bahl

uteck · 08-25-2009, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenneho

I wasn't aware of this myself. How come it doesn't work proprely?

Seems to be the SQLight database that FF3 uses for storing everything from bookmarks, cookies and session data. SQLight documents say it does not perform well over NFS and has locking problems which cause it to hang.

uteck · 08-25-2009, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajesh.bahl

The NIS server is having NFS operational with /home directory exported.

Except this no other configuration has been done on server/client. Do I need to carry out any other configuration ?

rajesh.bahl

If you want the clients to mount /home when they login you need to configure NIS to also serve auto.master and auto.home config files for autofs. You also need to ensure that autofs in enabled on the clients.

Here is a howto for autofs that might help.
http://www.linux-consulting.com/Amd_AutoFS/autofs.html

Or if you don't have that many clients, you could mount nfs from fstab, but that is a bit more resource intensive since the mounts are active all time.

chrism01 · 08-25-2009, 07:56 PM

Here's the RHEL/Centos Deployment manual section for autofs http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ig-autofs.html