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

2011-01-02 Thread 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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Re: [Grml] Is nss-ldap missing from grml 2010.04 ?

2011-01-02 Thread Michael Prokop
* jonty  [Sun Jan 02, 2011 at 03:01:23PM +]:

> 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.

Nice! :)

> 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?

libnss-ldap requires pre-configuration to be useful and no shipped
package has a hard dependency on it, that's why it's not shipped by
default.

> 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?

Just grab Grml 2010.12 (current stable release) and run "apt-get
install libnss-ldap" there, no major updates (like libc) should be
necessary then.

If you want to have libnss-ldap persistent you can either use
http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=persistency (not that great for 20
machines probably though), the debs=... bootoption to install it
during bootup (see http://grml.org/cheatcodes/), remaster it using
grml-live (see http://grml.org/grml-live/) or if PXE booting is an
option provide the adjusted grml_chroot (either from grml-live or
based on the official ones from
http://debian.netcologne.de/www.grml.org/release-chroots/) through
PXE.

regards,
-mika-


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

2011-01-02 Thread Ulrich Dangel
* jonty wrote [02.01.11 16:01]:
Hi,
> 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.

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.

> 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 think libnet-ldap-perl is a dependency. Postfix ldap i dont know but
we should probably remove it, yes.
  
> 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.
 
You can remaster the cd yourselv via grml-live, use the netscript
bootoption to download a script from some server and execute it or
scripts to run a script from the cd.

> 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.  

Thats the normal way. And its very unlikely that it will break your
system.

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

2011-01-02 Thread jonmail
Michael Prokop wrote:
> Just grab Grml 2010.12 (current stable release) and run "apt-get
> install libnss-ldap" there, no major updates (like libc) should be
> necessary then.
> 

I did as you suggested with 2010.12.  "apt-get install libnss-ldap"
worked without any fuss, so I am up and running.  Now I can configure it
to talk to my LDAP server.

I have also started grml-live in another machine to rebuild the
ISO.  I will have to wait a while for the results.

Thanks very much for your help.
jonty

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

2011-01-02 Thread 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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Re: [Grml] Is nss-ldap missing from grml 2010.04 ?

2011-01-03 Thread Thomas Köhler
Hi,

Ulrich Dangel wrote:
> * jonty wrote [02.01.11 16:01]:
[...]
> 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.

While generally true, I chose grml as my desktop system of
choice. I just remaster to add a few extra packages. It has all
it needs, quickly accepts patches ;) and just works. Especially
if the Desktop has the tendency to live on a USB disk and walk to
the hardware where I need it. :-)

Ciao,
Thomas

-- 
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 <>< WWW:  http://gott-gehabt.de
 IRC:   tkoehler
 PGP public key available from Homepage!


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

2011-01-03 Thread Jason White
Thomas Köhler  wrote:
 
> While generally true, I chose grml as my desktop system of
> choice. I just remaster to add a few extra packages. It has all
> it needs, quickly accepts patches ;) and just works. 

It wouldn't be difficult to install it and then just add whatever is desired
from the Debian repositories.

On my own machines, I don't draw a desktop/server distinction. My primary
workstation is physically a desktop system, but it's running Postfix,
FreeSWITCH, Bind (as hidden master for my domain), sshd, etc., in addition to
running the ADSL modem card. My laptop has most of the same software
installed, too.

These are both Debian systems, but they could just as easily have been built
from GRML.

Thanks for the work on GRML 2010.12. I downloaded it today, and plan to use it
as a rescue environment in the event of problems.

I needed GRML several months ago after I accidentally removed the ppp package
from the aforementioned desktop machine, which shut down the ADSL connection
and hence my link to the Internet. The solution was to boot GRML under kvm,
then copy pppd and pppoatm.so from the guest to the host, then run it on the
host to bring the ADSL line back up, and finally re-install the ppp package
properly. Mounting the GRML ISO image directly didn't help, since the Debian
kernel couldn't mount the LZMA-compressed squashfs file system. I think that's
fixed as of 2.6.36 or 2.6.37 in the mainline kernel.

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

2011-01-03 Thread Thomas Köhler
Hi,

Jason White wrote:
> Thomas Köhler  wrote:
> > While generally true, I chose grml as my desktop system of
> > choice. I just remaster to add a few extra packages. It has all
> > it needs, quickly accepts patches ;) and just works. 
> 
> It wouldn't be difficult to install it and then just add whatever is desired
> from the Debian repositories.

Sure, but loosing the possibility to easily roll back after a
broken update by just switching to the last known good version
would be sad. I have yet to see a more elegant solution to that
problem.

Ciao,
Thomas

-- 
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 <>< WWW:  http://gott-gehabt.de
 IRC:   tkoehler
 PGP public key available from Homepage!


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

2011-01-03 Thread Jason White
Thomas Köhler  wrote:
> Jason White wrote:
> > Thomas Köhler  wrote:
> > > While generally true, I chose grml as my desktop system of
> > > choice. I just remaster to add a few extra packages. It has all
> > > it needs, quickly accepts patches ;) and just works. 
> > 
> > It wouldn't be difficult to install it and then just add whatever is desired
> > from the Debian repositories.
> 
> Sure, but loosing the possibility to easily roll back after a
> broken update by just switching to the last known good version
> would be sad. I have yet to see a more elegant solution to that
> problem.

LVM or Btrfs snapshots are one possibility, which will become more common as
Btrfs stabilizes. There was an article about this on LWN some time ago.

My usual solution to this is to include testing in /etc/apt/sources.list (even
if I am upgrading to Unstable). If a package upgrade fails, I can just run sudo
aptitude install package/testing and get the version which is in testing,
and that generally fixes the problem. The maintainer then corrects the
package, uploads a new version, and the issue goes away.

That covers the great majority of cases in my experience (having run Debian
Sid since 1999 or so, on various machines.)

If the system becomes unbootable (which is rare), there's always Grml to the
rescue.

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