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In the past I have used Samba with Active Directory to allow network users to log into Linux machines. Today I'm maintaining a smaller network comprised only of Linux hosts, but I would still like to centralize authentication. I have looked into setting up a Samba host as a Domain Controller, but I don't exactly see the point of doing this when there are no Windows hosts. I've looked into NIS but it seems like it might be a bit complicated for my taste.

It is important that network-authenticated users share the same UIDs because there will be some shared disk resources involved as well.

For what it's worth the majority of my network nodes are OpenVZ containers, though there are some outliers (laptops, workstations, and a couple dedicated servers).

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Have you looked into 389 Directory Server/RedHat Directory Server? We've used it on small clusters of Linux only machines with great success, it essentially provides LDAP/Active Directory-like services for a Linux domain.

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  • All of my machines are Debian, will it be easy to adapt this service?
    – andyortlieb
    Jul 31, 2012 at 15:30
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    Yup, RedHat's "Directory Server" is an implementation of "389 Directory Server" which is support on most Linux distros - directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/…
    – Univ426
    Jul 31, 2012 at 15:33
  • Is there any compelling reason to select this over openLDAP, which has supported packages by Debian?
    – andyortlieb
    Jul 31, 2012 at 16:05
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    @andyortlieb: No, there is not (IMHO) On Debian, use OpenLDAP. It's better supported and more widely used, meaning you find more help in case of problems.
    – Sven
    Jul 31, 2012 at 16:52
  • Ah, good to know Sven - yeah, Andy, my experience with Debian is limited, so while it's listed as supported, is looks like openLDAP might be better from a support perspective
    – Univ426
    Jul 31, 2012 at 17:16
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Getting a base LDAP install ready isn't brain dead simple, but it isn't rocket science either and can be done in a few hours. I wouldn't use NIS for a new install, this is legacy technology.

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