LDAP vs. NIS+

[Ashley M. Kirchner]

    Once again I turn to the smart folks on this list.  I'm looking for 
a way to centralize our user management.  At the moment I have user 
logins that are scattered across several machines.  Ideally I want to 
have one central "accounts" machine, where all the user LOGIN data is 
kept and maintained.  Then I would have a shell server, where their 
actual files are kept.  Users then connect to this shell server only 
(which then authenticates the user against the "accounts" machine before 
letting them on.)  I will also have a web server and mail spool server 
which will have NFS shares, and all of these will have to have some 
record of the user information (UID/GID at the very least) for things to 
work properly.  That data should be coming from the central "accounts" 
machine I would think.

    I heard that NIS+ can do what I want to do.  At the same time, I 
also heard LDAP may be what I want.  So which is which?  What should I 
consider using?  Considering that neither is something I've played with 
extensively (I've done some NIS+ stuff eons ago, but never LDAP) this 
would be a first for me and having to figure things out from the ground up.

    What does the general public recommend?  And any 
pointers/suggestions you might have are also welcome.

-- 
H | I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape somewhere.
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  Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley at pcraft.com>   .   303.442.6410 x130
  IT Director / SysAdmin / WebSmith             .     800.441.3873 x130
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