[mythtv-users] [SLIGHTLY-OT] LDAP vs NIS vs NFS

[Ross Campbell]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Brad Fuller <bradallenfuller at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm always having to make sure the uid and gid's are the same for NFS
> on all my boxes and it's a pain everytime I add a box. I read
> somewhere that NIS would be a better way to go, that I wouldn't have
> to worry about that. Anyone using NIS? Is LDAP a better way to go.

Tons of organizations are using NIS ... and planning to migrate to
LDAP. If you're not already running NIS, go straight to LDAP.

Just remember that all of your other systems will become dependent on
your LDAP server for auth and that it will become a critical service
for your home systems. You'll probably want more than one LDAP server.
The line between a bunch of computers at home and a 'production home
datacenter' can get hard to define.

There are tons of howtos for just about every distro that explain how
to setup up an LDAP server using OpenLDAP and configure your clients.
At the same time, you may want to configure samba as a primary domain
controller and let any Windows boxes you have share common logins.

> I see it's much more secure

Well, ldap won't automatically make NFS more secure by itself, however
creating netgroups in LDAP and managing your exports lists centrally
can make NFS more secure. Hooking your sudoers file into LDAP so you
can manage sudo privileges centrally could make your environment more
secure... but that's another topic.

> it sure looks tough installing.

ldap is a lot more than just a centralized /etc/passwd file ...
Here's a good summary that's not too confusing -
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenLDAPServer

-Ross