[CS-FSLUG] NFS Scenarios

[Don Parris]

On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 15:09:21 -0600, Tim Young <tim.young at lightsys.org> wrote:
> Don,
> I am not sure if there is a doc out there, but I can tell you how I handled it
> when I ran a lab full of computers and 500+ users.
> 
> On the server we exported the entire /home directory to all the computers.
> Then we served NIS off the server.  That is it.  All working.
> 
> What it does is this.  NIS exports all the usernames, passwords, directories,
> groups, and UIDs.  All computers joined to the NIS domain authenticate with the
> same username and password.  And they all get the same home directory path
> given to each computer.  /home/username.  If the /home directory is exported,
> then whenever anyone logs in, they get their files off the server.
> 
> This is the typical setup for NIS.  That and exporting /usr/local off the
> server also.  Though on the newer redhats they have changed this to
> /usr/share.  So any pakages you have on your domain that you want "installed"
> across all your computers, you store on /usr/local/ (or /usr/share).  Now that
> it is much easier with distributions to keep computes synchronized with the
> packages you have installed, it is not quite as important to have the
> /use/local or /usr/share directories exported.
> 
> Life gets a little more complex if you also have samba installed and are using
> smb passwords.  There are a few good ways to do that one also.
> 
> Blessings,
> 
>         - Tim Young
> 
> 
I am aware there are security issues with NFS, but wasn't sure exactly
what was involved.  I am also aware that NIS is insecure by design.  I
would rather use LDAP in my case, as it offers a more secure solution
than NIS.  I mainly was curious about how to implement a sensible NFS
configuration.  I will read up on the articles pointed out to me in
your responses so far, and return with any further questions.  Thanks
for the input.

-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!