Use shared network folders when users logon?
 

It is common in M$ WINDOWS to allocate folders on a file server for DOMAIN users in a network. So, when a user logs into this DOMAIN, his or her folder on the server will most probably be mapped to a local drive for use.

Now, I'm thinking how this can be implemented in a network that each machine is an opensuse box. Suppose there is a file server "FS", shared folder on "FS" is "/network" so each user can have a separate subfolder. Also suppose there is a machine "TESTING" and a local user "peter" on "TESTING" and his home folder on "TESTING" is "/home/peter".

I suppose one way to support using this shared folder on "FS" is this: Create a folder "/network/peter" for "perter" on "FS"; when "peter" logs on machine "TESTING", the folder "network/peter" on "FS" will be mounted as "/home/peter/FS". In addition, consider "peter" will never feel comfortable with command-line, we need to create something like a local drive icon like in windows for him to click to open the folder and do things like browse, save and open files, etc.

So, I have the following two questions:

1. How to mount a user's network folder on a server (S.A. "FS") to his local system when he logs on?

2. How to create a GUI icon (sth I cannot figure out) for using this folder on user's local x-window system?

Thanks!

That can be done with NFS.

Make the centralized server a NFS-server. Export the directories needed from the server.
Shares can be configured with read or write or both enabled.

On client add the nfs-share to /etc/fstab so that the network shares will be automatically be mounted on boot.
You can also add custom scripts to /home/user/.bash_profile which will be started on logon.

Try googling with words : NFS share , fstab, mount

Thanks, onjoo.

Can this work with LDAP and Samba? I have no idea what role the latter two can play in this scenario. Maybe manage user info s.a. authentication and authorization? Any thoughts or suggestions?

SAMBA can fit in the puzzle same way as NFS. You make a SAMBA share on a server and mount it automatically on boot (add the smbmount to /etc/fstab) .

Thats something like an replacement for NFS if you need to allow Windows users to access the same "folders". Or you can also offer the directory as NFS share for linux users and as samba share for windows users.

The directories you want to share can be protected. You just modify the group right, and make sure the users are member of the group in LDAP .

Thanks! Words really carry knowledge.

So, as I can understand, the following is the steps (logically) to follow:

- on file server, enable both SAMBA and NFS. For any folder to be shared, set it so in SAMBA (for windows clients) and NFS (for linux clients).

- on linux client machine, mount shared network root folder at boot. but since we have to mount each home folder on file server for each user, we need to mount this network home folder in local /home/user/.bash_profile.

- on windows client, it can be set up as usual.

Still one question:

1. can SAMBA be used for both linux and windows clients so only SAMBA needs to be enabled on file server w/o NFS?