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

[David L. Willson]

On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 13:03 -0700, Jim Hutchinson wrote:
> 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?
> 
For the impatient:
1 - Consider a dumb-X-terminal solution, if you have one badass box, and
a bunch of crap.  Think Edubuntu.
2 - Consider just tying into AD, if you already have a good AD-based
infrastructure.  You might want to start here:
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/08/08/linux-active-directory-and-windows-server-2003-r2-revisited/
3 - Consider building up an OpenLDAP or Fedora Directory Service based
domain.  You might want to start here:
http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Howto:DebianUbuntu
or here:  http://www.openldap.org
or here:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=206202