Re: [Grml] Is nss-ldap missing from grml 2010.04 ?

[jonty]

Ulrich Dangel wrote:
> Are you sure grml is the right distribution? It is not meant to be used
> as a normal desktop system. If you want to run normal Linux Desktops
> just use a normal Distribution like Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL or Opensuse.

Yes I have chosen grml especially for this job.  The 20 machines are all
virtual and they will make up a server farm with a mix of http, smtp,
postgresql, load balancers, and supporting services.

To squeeze the most out of the physical hardware I need a small distro
that can expand into large software (such as postgresql servers) without
any fuss.  grml fits the bill perfectly.  Some of the small vms that do
simple jobs in the network use as little as 64MB ram and 20MB hard
drive.

Because grml boots from an ISO that is mounted readonly I can share a
single copy of the operating system between all the vms.  That saves on
resources, but more importantly it saves on thinking: every machine
always has the same set of tools.

Because grml mounts a hard drive as a persistent writable layer I can
give each vm its own private drive to store configuration and data.
This makes it very easy to clone machines, make backups, and restore
when something goes wrong.

Grml already contains most of the tools I want in my farm such as
haproxy, dnsmasq, and lighttpd.  The missing tools are only an "apt-get"
away.  I have wasted enough of my life running "configure; make; make
install" and a lightweight distro that avoids compiling add-on software
is a real blessing.

I could not find another distribution that had all these features.  I am
extremely impressed with grml and what it can achieve.

( Actually what really grabbed my attention the first time I started grml
was the Terminus font.  When I saw Terminus appear as the default I knew
the people behind this distro must be serious about making computers
work in useful ways. )

Thanks
jonty
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[Grml] Is nss-ldap missing from grml 2010.04 ?

[jonty]

Hi All,

I have been using grml for the last couple of months.  I am building a
network of about 20 machines, all running grml, and I want them to share
a single set of login names and passwords.  So I decided to configure
OpenLDAP as a service on one machine and configure the other machines to
find login+password from this service.

I am following the instructions set out at:

  http://wiki.debian.org/LDAP/NSS
  
http://www.debian-administration.org/article/585/OpenLDAP_installation_on_Debian

They suggest I use libnss-ldap.  But this package seems to be missing
from my copy of grml 2010.04.  I have also checked the package list
for 2010.12 and that does not contain libnss-ldap.

This seems a strange omission from grml.  It contains slapd to run the
service and several clients such as freeradius-ldap, libnet-ldap-perl,
postfix-ldap, and smbldap-tools.  So why not libnss-ldap?

I could install libnss-ldap on each client machine.  But then I have to
repeat those same steps on 20 machines, which makes it 20 times more
likely I will make a mistake somewhere.

I tried "apt-get install libnss-ldap" on a test machine.  This started
updating libc-bin and installing locales, which seemed a good way of
breaking the distro.  Can anyone suggest a better approach?  Should I
remaster the CD?  Is there some gmrl magic I am missing?  Is there a
different tool for login+password that is not ldap?

Thanks
Jonty
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