Good morning,
I do some basic linux system admin duties and system builds and need some help. I now have 6 or so RedHat v5 servers with another 5 or 6 on the way. It is getting hard to maintain passwords on all 5 (soon to be 10 or more)for al of my users. Is it possible to authenticate to our Windows domain when logging in to the Linux servers? That way all of my users only need to remember 1 password for all servers.
Can someone point me in the right direction?

thanks

LDAP would definitely be one way to go, but you'd have to analyze what you're going for. NIS/NIS+ is another method, but they serve different purposes.

I've got LDAP going at one of my sites, and like it. But, remember you need more than ONE server. Got to have master/slave setup, since if one dies, you need the other to be able to log in. Nice too, since ANYTHING that uses LDAP, can use the one set of servers...and LDAP is spreading everywhere.

You can install openLDAP for free on a Linux box, and test it out. See if you like it.

Okay thanks, that makes sense. Do you know if there is anything that my Windows Admin would need to do on the Windows side to enable Linux authentication? Do you know how users, groups, security, etc would translate over (either way)?

Wrong way to think of it. It's not "Linux authentication", it's LDAP authentication. LDAP is a 'standard', much like any other.

Think about email...your client doesn't know or care what the server running it is. Just that the protocol is supported. So, if you're running an IMAP server, that's it....the clients need IMAP clients. They won't care if the server it's on, is on a mainframe, laptop, or a cluster of old palm-pilots. From a Windows standpoint, I'm sorry, but I don't have knowledge of it. From a Linux/unix standpoint, it's great. When you're buidling the box, you can tell it you're using LDAP, give it the server particulars, and your'e done. You can even integrate SUDO'ers files into LDAP, and have one SUDOERS list for all your boxes.

Here's a good guide http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...DAP_and_RADIUS & Chap 24 http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ion/index.html