From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 12 09:08:36 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CFD41065672 for ; Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:08:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ew0-f21.google.com (mail-ew0-f21.google.com [209.85.219.21]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91AD28FC18 for ; Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:08:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: by ewy14 with SMTP id 14so1917607ewy.19 for ; Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:08:34 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=CVLDvpVvrWLhoMlkRSsib44LfQyHDL1fjdiTDo1pBYA=; b=BXdx94XZS45+m224FqvL1r9eRDg5Y9RitYoQxpgn2D+bUaLWxMTdPVow8pEURTegsr FGXdaAf3+Lxez4aeAXaxk0VUMXffTYEWcWNJbUZ7HvdhlVZ2ZAg0uYj8ft8GtJNUDKC2 QaSFMRxKmS/JT2nOhsL5sz7rRXJAMpfXjlz2w= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=oe82e05oWfgaVwBMej+uFF1wP62/Nx0ox+tdiJWNsEDBVXQVkmW1sfaIvjkka5xVnq ZsjcrOPzvCnnHcOOY6DCK7CwP4xSRXgGghBRpBROvyQ9JN9F2cQJrEsDgMnwS2Pnx36m sH5nbJg2Ai1NjKfKGfSSy3kh8jF0pWK9e8aHw= Received: by 10.210.58.13 with SMTP id g13mr3825236eba.61.1229072914166; Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:08:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from theone.dyndns.org (adsluser766.att.sch.gr [81.186.20.8]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 20sm338363eyk.4.2008.12.12.01.08.32 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:08:33 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <49422A05.6050907@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:08:21 +0200 From: Manolis Kiagias User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (X11/20081011) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Valentin Bud References: <139b44430812112348k5c51072ie771913c982f7cfe@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <139b44430812112348k5c51072ie771913c982f7cfe@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Centralized DB of "system" users X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:08:36 -0000 Valentin Bud wrote: > Hello list, > > I don't know if the Subject says what i really want to achieve but i do > hope that i will make myself understood. > > I work for a school and i want to install in 2 labs on very low performance > computers (1 Ghz CPU, 126 Mb RAM) some linux distro (zen walk). I *need* > to install linux because there are some programs that need to run on those > stations and guess what, they only work on linux. > > There are different students that use those computers and they change > frequently. So i thought > to make a server, using FreeBSD (of course), that has a database of users so > the linux machines > don't have local users but they query the DB to get login credentials and > such. I don't > really know what to look for. So any suggestion and hints to how can i > achieve this > are welcomed. > > thank you and a great day, > v > What you are looking for is called NIS: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-nis.html However note it is not (unfortunately) interoperable between FreeBSD and Linux, although there is a setting (UNSECURE=true in /var/yp/Makefile of the NIS server) that works around this, albeit it lowers security. There are other solutions too (LDAP?) but NIS would be the easiest to setup.