Windows or LDAP authentication

Hi,

If Windows authentication is used as the primary mode of
authentication for a network, and Linux servers (SUSE) are being
introduced - is there a way to integrate Windows authentication?

The idea is that openSUSE will be used to run VMware guests, and I'm
concerned that if a non-admin user needs to log onto the guests (eg.
on the weekend when the support staff might not have network access at
the time), then we will need to provide the user with the root
password.

My other concern is that if we use the same root password for all the
Linux boxes then security might be compromised, if it is difficult to
change the root passwords en masse. When using more than 1 Linux
server is it possible to use some type of LDAP pass-through
authentication to AD? So that the root password is stored in AD? I
guess this must sound like heresy to some people, but it would make
user & security management much easier!

I'd be interested to here stories or experiences of integrating
Windows & Linux authentication.

Thanks,
Michael

.

Relevant Pages