Syncing 3 Freebsd servers' accounts Question

[Erik Norgaard]

Jason Lieurance wrote:
> I have 3 freebsd servers(4.7,4.9,5.3) and would like to have 1 set of user/group
> accounts instead of 3. I don't know very much about NIS or LDAP which come up when I
> researched the topic. So what is the easiest, cheapest(free), and best way to
> accomplish this???

Just to counter other post - this seems to be partly a matter of taste 
and what you know :-) - every book I have read, and every advice I have 
gotten: Don't use NIS unless you absolutely have to - and this goes in 
particular for NIS+.

That said (somewhat religous, sorry :-) LDAP is a good choice for many 
other reasons, the main one that the use can be extented beyond what you 
are currently trying to do.

- LDAP namespace coincides with SSL certificates
- LDAP scales well
- LDAP is extensible
- LDAP is an open protocol rfc3377
- LDAP can easily be filtered by your firewall
- LDAP integrates well(?) with windows (or better than NIS)
- LDAP is more hype
...

While you might not need these things for your home network, they may 
just be what gets you a job some day.

Whereas

- NIS is proprietary protocol developed by Sun
- NIS is an rpc-service, imposible or at best difficult to filter
- NIS is being replaced by LDAP everywhere rfc2307
...

OK, I admit, I have followed the advice I have gotten, and never sat 
down and really tried to do something with NIS.

Cheers, Erik
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