[CoLoCo] If you don't use AD how can you authenticate users?

[Jim Hutchinson]

On Jan 21, 2008 12:54 PM, Michael Robbert <mrobbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> The classic answer, assuming we're talking about Linux systems(this is a
> Linux list after all), is NIS, but it is not secure at all. I think that
> modern implementations use LDAP and/or Kerberos. You can also use Samba.
> I've used NIS and Samba in the past, but have yet to play too much with LDAP
> and Kerberos, but others that I work with have this working on a few
> systems.
>

Mike,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we are talking Linux. Can you give a bit
more info here. Assuming no AD, where would you run this? I'm guessing
a dedicated server or similar but not sure. If that's the case, what
exactly do you need on the server? A Linux server install, LDAP,
Kerberos? What about the actual list of users? I don't know much about
any of this so would Kerberos also act like a database and hold this
info or do you need something else in addition to contain the
authenticating data?

In short, if you have 50 stand alone linux desktops and want students
to be able to log in to any of them with their own credentials, how do
you set it up without having to set up 1000 users on each desktop?

Thanks,
-jim


-- 
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html