I need a little bit of guidance and setting up my first Linux network. I am very familiar with Microsoft networking, but I am not familiar with setting up a Linux network.

Here is what I want to do:

I have a network with 1 Linux server about 15 clients (let's say all Linux)

I want to have this network where I setup users on the server (Linux), and then when they get on any client (Linux) on the network, they log on to their desktop, they are authenticated with the server and their home directory is available, as well as any other configuration we have for them. I am coming at this from Microsoft server experience, and that is generally how it works. With microsoft I can even store profiles on the server that are pushed to the client they logon from.

Now, tell me how it is done in a Linux network. What role does the server play? How do you tell a client to look to a particular server for username authentication and that kind of stuff? If you know windows server networks and Linux networks, the comparision would be helpful.

Here is what I know and don't need help with:
I know how to install and use linux on individual boxes
I know how to use Samba (for the couple of Windows Machines I might have at some point)
I know how to do other server configs like Apache, Database, and Mail.
I can do basic users and groups setup on the server

If there is a document you can point me to that would be great, but I have looked through alot, and I can't find my specific questions answered.

Thanks,
HCG

You could mount the /home directories with NFS on the server. Thus have all the user info, config and data on the server. You should probably use another name in case the server fails and users still want to login with the local /home dir.

For user authentication, I suggest you look into PAM and LDAP authentication. I accomplished this in the past (4+ years ago.) in this manner. I'm sure there have been advances since then, but it's a starting point.