I am a linux newbie. I was able to read from related threads that setting up NIS is insecure. I was able to browse howtos on how to use rsync to synchronized files from a server. My question is...by running cron jobs at the server to synchronize client files, applicable to many client machines? In my cron job, i have to state the client running rsync could i be able to synchronize all client files with the use of ip_addresses/netmask ? Hope would care to enlighten me on this and suggest another alternative way to do so...

zdehman,

I've never used NIS itself, but what I'm setting up right now is to use a LDAP server and have the NSS (Name Service Switch) use the LDAP server. It is a bit more complex than using a manual copy (or rsync), but is a bit more standard and hopefully more useful. PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) can use LDAP as well. PAM allows you more control or use authentication than NSS.

Right now, I'm wrapping my head around exactly what NSS vs. PAM does and how LDAP provides the info. NSS implements the C library functions to get user and machine (can provide host name -> IP address translation instead of using DNS) information and allows different methods of looking the info up (files, hashed databases, NIS, LDAP) using dynamic modules. PAM is a set of functions to control sessions and user authentication. My major problem with LDAP is the nomenclature. It takes a while for me to get it.

If you are going to try the rsync route, make sure to use ssh as a transport. You can use host based RSA authentication or user base RSA authendication. How were you going to run this? Are the cron jobs on the client or server?

Have fun,
chris

Im gonna edit server's root crontab and indicate the client's hostname there. Could i do this with many clients like i have to indicate them one by one on the server's crontab? We'll if not, is LDAP easy to install? I am still a newbie...Thanks!