Managing users with LDAP: cpu vs. ldapscripts vs. ?

[Nicolas Kovacs]

Hi,

I'm currently migrating my old NFS/NIS setup for centralized 
authentication and roaming profiles to something more modern, e. g. 
NFS/LDAP.

So far, I've got everything working quite well in my sandbox network. 
Only thing I'm wondering about now is the best way to manage users.

I gave the 'cpu' (Change Password Utility) a spin, and I like it very 
much, since it allows to use the good old useradd/userdel/groupadd/etc. 
utilities by prefixing them with the cpu command, except users get 
stored in the LDAP directory tree. Works nice. One thing bothers me 
though: as if to mock the name of the utility, there's seems to be no 
way to change a users' password once it's defined. Plus, it only asks 
*once* for the password, so it's not typo-proof asn the original UNIX 
passwd command.

I see there's also another set of utilities for that, the 'ldapscripts'. 
Someone already worked satisfyingly with these?

Any suggestions for handling users in an LDAP directory tree? I don't 
mind if the tool is GUI or command-line, as long as it's reliable and 
JustWorks(tm).

Cheers from the sunny South of France,

Niki Kovacs

PS: server is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, clients are Kubuntu 11.04.
-- 
Microlinux - Solutions informatiques 100% Linux et logiciels libres
7, place de l'église - 30730 Montpezat
Web  : http://www.microlinux.fr
Mail : info at microlinux.fr
Tél. : 04 66 63 10 32