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Date:      Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:21:35 -0800
From:      Bill Campbell <freebsd@celestial.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: NFS or an alternative?
Message-ID:  <20090113062135.GA11790@ayn.mi.celestial.com>
In-Reply-To: <A881A8FA-98C7-4AF5-A3FA-2F4CAC739605@socket.net>
References:  <A881A8FA-98C7-4AF5-A3FA-2F4CAC739605@socket.net>

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On Mon, Jan 12, 2009, Jay Hall wrote:
> I am in the process of redesigning my organization's network.  And,  
> since we will be using mostly Macintosh OS X clients, I am considering  
> using NFS.  However, I will need the ability to perform user/group  
> authentication since users may not always log in from the same PC.
>
> Essentially, each user has a home directory which only they, and  
> possibly their secretary, needs to have access to.  And, we have  
> directories which groups of people need access to.
>
> From the reading I have done this evening, my understanding is NFSv4  
> will meet all of these needs.  Is this correct?  And, is there a better 
> way to accomplish this?

NFS is only part of the problem.

We have done this using OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD clients using
openldap for authentication and the amd automounter to handle
home directories when there are multiple machines on which user's
home directories may be found.

When we create the openldap records, we map /home/username to
/homes/username to avoid conflict with client machine's local
user's directories.  We have one system with about 10,000 users
with multiple client machines handling mail delivery, pop, and
imap  to user's Maildir stores with the NFS mounted $HOME
directories which has been working without a hitch for several
years.  In this case the main systems /home directory is NFS
mounted to /homes on the client machine, specifying the tcp
protocol for maximum reliability.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:   bill@celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
Voice:          (206) 236-1676  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820
Fax:            (206) 232-9186

Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not
who makes its laws.  -- Mayer Amschel Rothschild



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