Re: NIS (client) issues...

From: Howard J. Rogers (hjr_at_dizwell.com)
Date: 08/27/04 

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:29:20 +1000

kwswz@whwjzt.com wrote:

> |Starting with the simplest of questions, I suppose: I take it I am not
> |supposed to create user accounts on the client first, but that the ones
> |already created on the Server should be all that are necessary. That is,
> |after all, the entire point of NIS: centralised security, no?
>
> That's probably the problem. The uids on the server differ from those
> accounts you already created on the client. Delete the user accounts on
> the client, start up NIS and then create the home directory if
> necessary.
> --

Sorry... a slight mis-communication on my part. Let me rephrase it a bit:

I take it I am *NOT* supposed to create user accounts first?
Because I have *NOT* been doing that.
I've assumed the network accounts are the ones that will get me onto the
client, and have been trying to log on with *just* the network accounts.

So I hope that deals with any possibility of uid conflict!

Your last sentence is the one that particularly intrigues me: 'create the
home directory if so'. As I replied to myself earlier, I discovered that it
all works if I log on using a Windows manager that doesn't require a great
home directory structure as KDE does. It also works, even for KDE, if I
pre-create a /home/username directory and chmod it within an inch of its
life. I've therefore sort of worked out for myself that pre-creating user
directories is necessary... and here you are confirming it.

The reason I dwell on the point is (a) you wouldn't have to do that for a
domain user loggin onto a new Windows PC for the first time (the profile
directories etc are created automatically as part of the log on). (b) not
one of the SuSE references or Google'd documents or How-To's mentioned the
need to create user directories. For example,
http://www.linux-nis.org/nis-howto/HOWTO/settingup_client.html mentions the
requirement not once. And it is, presumably, the official word on the
subject.

(a) can be dismissed simply by pointing out this isn't Windows, I realise.
But (b)???!

But whatever. Can you just confirm: with a functioning NIS server in place,
I have to log onto the client the first time as root, and create a set of
home directories for any and all network-authenticated users that might use
it at some point, in advance? Is that correct?

If it is, two further questions if you wouldn't mind: what permissions do I
give to the home directories (I tend to use 777, but that's the Windows
background kicking in again!)? And, second, what do I do if there are 450
users set up on the NIS server, and any one of them might use the client
machine from time to time? Sit there typing all day??!

Thanks for your time so far. Any clarification you can offer on those two
last questions would be very helpful.

Regards
HJR

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