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FogSwimmer 03-23-2006 12:21 AM

PDC and data server setup linux / windows shared
 
Hi.

For our lab I'd like to set up a domain controller and data server to provide user profiles and user data in a mixed Linux / Windows environment. For organizational reasons profiles and data need to be stored on two separate computers. As I have never done this sort of thing before I am not quite sure how to start. The following things in particular are unclear to me:

1) What is the most appropriate package for my needs and why? (samba, samba-tng, pam, nfs, combinations?)
2) How do I automatically synchronize user accounts
a) between work stations and servers, and
b) between both servers (profile and data)?
3) On an Ubuntu system, can I give a user local box admin privileges without having them mess with the servers?

Any help much appreciated!

All the best,
f

ARC1450 03-24-2006 09:54 AM

1) Samba and NFS (IMHO). You can find the Samba how-to on their website, and it provides close to step-by-step instructions on how to set it up. For Linux, I did it the cheap way and used NFS and simply mounted the share in /home across the Linux machines. The issue, though, is that after a while for some reason it didn't want to unmount, and that was the only NFS share that didn't like unmounting on reboots. :confused:
2) Windows has roaming profiles (which work decently enough as long as a user doesn't log in from multiple locales), and Linux with NFS is synch'd real-time, for lack of better terms. You won't need to synchronize between servers since they contain two separate sets needed information (for lack of better terms)
3) Yes. The privies are box-dependent in NFS. Just make sure the UID's and GID's are the same across the board or you could have issues.

This is NOT the best solution for your problem, but it is a solution none-the-less, and I can tell you flat out that there are much better solutions. This is just the cheap-n-easy way.

FogSwimmer 03-26-2006 01:41 PM

Hi ARC1450,

Thanks for the input! May I follow up with two more questions please:

A) I've used samba a lot in the past, but no experience whatsoever with nfs. Would I be able to export shares on samba and nfs at the same time, i.e. allow for a user to log into one linux and one windows box?

B) I probably didn't make clear what I meant with my second question in the original post. Let me rephrase it:
I have no ambition of creating the same user account on both servers plus each box in the lab. Especially since there are two systems to take care of. Now, for the linux part I could write some script that propagates a user account created on one server to the other and also exports it to all boxes. Now
a) Is it really necessary to have each user account created locally on all boxes?
b) how do I make sure my linux users have windows accounts as well and vice versa?

Thanks for any further ideas.

f

ARC1450 03-26-2006 02:49 PM

A) No. Samba locks the share when someone is using it, so if NFS gets ahold of it and someone tries to write a file that's locked, you may be weird issues. Same thing if NFS locks Samba out of a file.

B) Well, you could do it the REALLY cheap and easy way; give everyone write access to the profile directory that's on a different server and force the user/group in Samba --OR-- you can try to use your Samba PDC as a password server. I've never done that, so I can't really help with it. Check out the Samba how-to on their site, though, as it may yield some answers. And giving your Windows users Linux accounts is easy; you can set up a script, and using (I believe) the NT Admin tools, you can create users on the Samba server. Now, for Linux -> Windows account creation, it gets a LITTLE hairy. They have a section on that, though, in the Samba How-To also. I bought a hard copy of the book because it's easier to browse it than an HTML version. However, if you REALLY want to print it, it'll take about 400 or 500 pages for the entire thing (at least).

FogSwimmer 03-26-2006 11:59 PM

ARC1450,

I think I'll be digging into the samba Manuals and see if I can configure it as a password server. Thanks for your help.
f


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