[Fedora-directory-users] Forgive the misunderstandings of a "newb"

[Nathan Kinder]

lists at scott-ackerman.com wrote:
> I thought I was smart until I dove into LDAP. I am the sole part-time IT
> Manager for a charter school (240 students, 20 staff, 60 computers) and
> am migrating away from a Windows server environment to Linux. The only
> services that are being provided by a Windows server now are AD, file
> and print sharing services. Since we are turning about 15 of our student
> computers into Linux stations, I decided on a "simpler" method of
> managing authentication, login etc. and chose Fedora Directory Server
> (after having beat my head against the wall with strictly OpenLDAP for a
> month). I have successfully set up FDS and entered all students and
> staff. I have decided not to sync against our AD server because we are
> changing the student login method, the old format was locker number for
> user name and then a password. I have decided to use the first.last name
> for user name and then a password.
>
> I am trying to set up posix authentication and Samba and am having
> difficulties with both, technical on the former and understanding on the
> latter. First posix, I have followed the how to on the FDS Wiki, but
> there seems to be some steps missing. I have gotten an authenticated
> student logon, but only after having created an account on the local
> machine with the same UID. I made sure that the password was different
> in FDS than when I created the user on the local machine and I am able
> to login to using either password which would indicate to me that I am
> successfully authenticating to FDS. However I don't particularly care to
> have to add 240 students on all 15 computers to make this work, not to
> mention all of the "home" directories that will be mounted from the NFS
> server. So the questions is, what steps am I missing here?
>   
It sounds like you need to configure nss_ldap.  Assuming you have 
nss_ldap installed on your client systems, you should be able to add 
"ldap" as a service for looking up users and groups in your 
/etc/nsswitch.conf file.

-NGK
> Samba. As I understand it, Windows will only authenticate against an NT
> or "NT like (aka. Samba)" server, which means as far as I can tell that
> either I have Samba sync against FDS or I use pGina on the Windows side
> to authenticate directly against LDAP or scrap LDAP all together and
> just use an NIS server (don't think this is a good idea, but it is a
> possiblity). Of course trying to assess the pros and cons of either has
> been somewhat difficult at best. Also the FDS Samba how-to doesn't cover
> computer management which Samba is going to have to deal with as well.
>
> Before someone replies with a "RTFM", I have read the Install Guide as
> well as the Red Hat Directory Server documentation and I am currently
> half-way through the book "Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory
> Services", so I have a reasonable understanding of how to get into
> trouble. Of course none of these provide in-depth (nor should they)
> information as to how to integrate with other services. I have spent a
> month reading, tinkering etc., and I am not asking anyone else to do my
> work for me, but I have seem to hit a wall and need a couple of
> "breadcrumbs" to get me back on the trail. Thank you for your patience
> and understanding.
>
>   

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