Set up a central Authentication Server
 

Hello Guys,

This is my first query at this forum.

I've started with UNIX recently and want to set up a central authentication server.

Details:-
* A server such that other users can can connect from their terminals for login authentication.
* They shud be able to store their files on their respective Home directories also.
* The client machines can be running their own distros or can be connected thru TELNET
* What are all the settings that I'd need to do.

Plz guide me in this respect...

Me and my friends need to set up this network as a practical.

Thanks in advance.

a quick and easy way to do this would be to set up NIS for your authentication and use NFS to mount your home drives. that way your home drive data will be the same every time you login no matter what computer you log into.

Thx, I'll try to do that and let you know... I did think of doing that u know! :)

Meanwhile any more tips or tricks that I can use...

Your most welcome. I did this on a VM as the Central NIS box with Debian and set up 2 workstations to prove my previous (VERY windows only) boss that roaming profiles aren't as fantastic just because MS say it is. To be honest I find it far simpler to set up roaming home drives in NIS with NFS than what AD roaming profiles are. All up it only took about 10 minutes to set up, once i had the base OS's installed of course.


One thing I would suggest, is on your server, when you create your accounts, specify a different home location e.g. /rhome/

Once you have set up your users, check to confirm where their home drives are.
#cat /etc/passwd | grep user
user1:x:1000:1000::/rhome/user1:/bin/sh
user2:x:1001:1001::/rhome/user2:/bin/sh
user3:x:1002:1002::/rhome/user3:/bin/sh

You will need to create your /rhome/ folder before you create your 3 users in this example.

then set up an NFS export for /rhome/

/rhome *.mynetwork.com(rw,no_root_squash)

Add that line to /etc/exports after installing NFS. This will allow all your computers on the network mynetwork.com read/write access.

when you have added that line and reloaded your NFS config (or restarted the NFS server) you can fun "exportfs" to see your active exports.

All you need to do then on your workstations is set up NIS authentication to your NIS server. Check your distro documentation for that. Then you need to add your NFS mount to be automatically mounted on machine bootup.

create a local folder of /rhome in order to mount your NFS share to and then add the below to your /etc/fstab file

nfsserver:/rhome /rhome nfs defaults 0 0



Profided you have set up your NFS export and your NIS authentication correctly, you should be able to log onto one of your PCs, lets say change the background to make an obvious change, (note that profile changes are immediate and you wont need to log off) and then try logging onto your other PC and see if your new wallpaper appears.

See

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...ccess_with_NFS
and
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...DAP_and_RADIUS
from
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

Wow mate!!!

That was wonderful... Now I got it all... Thanks a lot dbmacartney :)

And you too billy :) your links were enlightening too!