On 03/10/09 11:16, Rob Malpass wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Can someone tell me please if what I'm trying to do is
> overcomplicating things? I'm thinking of setting up some sort of
> domain controller for the Linux part of my network i.e. to have my
> own (and any other family member's) user area under a remote box as
> opposed to at present where it's located on each box under /home.
So, a central fileserver combined with automount and centrally-stored
user accounts.
How many users / computers are we talking about here?
Are they all Linux boxes or are there some Windows systems too?
> The advantages of this are basically to make a backup I just need to
> do one thing - back up the server - and it'll be more secure.
What do you mean by 'secure' in this instance?
Are you trying to secure your personal data? Or passwords? Or have
better access control to your systems?
> This differs from the current arrangement where all important files
> are copied across to a NAS and backed up when I think about it. So
> working files are under /home/whoever but it relies on me copying
> important stuff across to my NAS as and when.
If this is the only real reason, why not just set up a script running
rsync via cron for this sort of thing? Then you don't need to remember.
Or mount filesystems from the NAS as local home directories?
> When I was at Uni - there was a "primary YP master" which handled all
> of this sort of thing but that was (can't quite believe it's so long
> but it is) 17 years ago and things have probably moved on. Should I
> still be thinking about setting this sort of thing up?
If you wish.
YP ('yellow pages') == NIS, which is a tad old-school (and completely
insecure) but on a private network should be fine.
There are any number of organisations out there still using it.
Most "modern" directory services are LDAP-based.
There are a number of LDAP directory servers out there.
Probably the most obvious is openLDAP, but the 389 directory server
(formerly the Fedora / Red Hat / Netscape DS) is really rather easy to
set up as well and has handy graphical tools to manage it.
> It's basically a question of - what do I google for? Linux domain
> controller is just pointing me toward samba sites.
That's because 'Domain Controller' is (mostly) a Windows networking term.
One of the more common terms for this these days is 'Directory Service'
Linux LDAP
or
Linux NIS
would probably come up with a load of information.
> Final question - is this solution going to be any better than my
> current setup - i.e. I could just put more thought into my NAS
> configuration? The trouble is my NAS boxes have interfaces that are
> just so darn bad (NSLU2 and Bufallo Linkstation) that I think anyone
> that knew anything about security could get in with no problem.
Regards,
Stuart
--
Stuart Sears RHCA etc.
"It's today!" said Piglet.
"My favourite day," said Pooh.
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