Topic: Authentification and home with Suse 10

[johnjdoe]

Hi,

please excuse my stupid newbie question(s)! I have a SME server and some Suse 10 workstations and I would like to know how I could:

* Login with the users I create on the server on the workstations without recreating them localy on the Suse machines.

* Mount the users home allways on the server instead of the local one.

* Create and use disk space on the server for some groups of users. Do I have to use the "windows network" (Samba) or is there a(n) better/other solution to do this with SME server.

For your explanation, I would like to create a user (and admin) friendly network with a minimum on the workstations and a maximum on the server. Is there perhaps allready a documentation somewhere? Unfortunately I didn't find something.

A last question in the same context what is perhaps a little bit OT:

* I could do an online update with Suse 10 and it works fine. But I ask myself if there is not a possibility to do that with the server and then pick it with the workstations from the SME server instead from some servers on the internet.

I know that these are a lot of questions but it would be great if someone will have the time to give me some answers! Please excuse my bad english!

Thank you in advance for your precious help!

[Reinhold]

johndoe,

* 1,2,3
- look for something called smbmount on Linux
(either man smbmount or http://www.google.com/search?q=smbmount (or both)).
Suse had some problems here so check man smbclient too.

- use the "search Site" icon on the upper right in this forum
(iow this has been asked more often than I care
Oh dont forget "show all results".

- When using SME as Domain controller with Linux clients, be prepared for some (not so nice) peculiarities of SME vs. Linux

* 4
What do you mean "could do an online update" ? yast?
(iow you might want to read YAST Online Update De-Mystified ).
...and remember that most stuff that comes into/through SME Server&Gateway will be cached in squid anyway ...
...so in general Id be not too inclined to put new stuff into a local ftp directory and then hand yast that url in it's update url list...

Regards
Reinhold

[dmac]

Do a search for NFS (Network File System) and NIS.  NIS is similar to the windows version of domain authentication for Unix based systems.  It should work well with SME and SUSE.

I have setup my SME server as a NFS server and it works great with Linux (I use Xandros) clients.

HTH,

Darin

[Reinhold]

Now that dmac mentions it  there was/is even a Howto for NIS/NFS with e-smith:

http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/How%20to%20set%20up%20NIS%20on%20your%20SME%20Server

...but the last time I tried it was (awfully) slow with Suse xyz  
... some locking problem it seemed.
I stayed with "all SMB" -clients.

Regards
Reinhold

[johnjdoe]

Thank you very much for your answers!

I'm a newbie in SME and Linux solutions and that's why I asked these questions. And I allready searched on the site/forum but the problem is that I don't really know what to search because I don't know the solution that exists under SME with Linux clients.

Now I know that I could make a small enforced network with SME and Suse workstations using NIS/NFS or smbmount. I have not yet understood the differences and/or the advantages/disadvantages from each system. I heard from LDAP authentification and iBays too. I'm a little bit confused wich way to choose.

I'm looking for the most transparent system for the final user to login on each workstation using the same information (LDAP?) and to have the same folders/applications.

So, if you have perhaps some more time and/or a mind to enlight me a little bit more, that would be great.

Thank you very much for your precious help!

[johnjdoe]

Hi,

as I told, I'm new in the domain of Linux networks and I choose SME server because I saw often the opinion that it is a simple and a complete server.

So, I thought that in combination with Linux workstations too that should be the perfect way to make my first Linux based network.

Now, I'm a little bit surprised that the server works really fine but "connecting" the workstations on it seems not to be as simple as this.  

I know now, that there is NFS/NIS, SMB, LDAP, iBays and perhaps other possibilities to just administrate the users and their storage in a central place.

But, please could somebody tell me, what are the differences between these ways and witch one (or combination) is the best one with SME and Linux clients? And why is there no preinstalled/preconfigured solution for Linux networks on SME server like it is for Win clients? Or is there such a solution and I just don't see it?

Thank you in advance for a word to this stuff or perhaps a tutorial!!