[wellylug] Linux Client-Server System

Jim Cheetham jim at gonzul.net
Tue Nov 22 09:24:17 NZDT 2005


On Mon, Nov 21, 2005 at 11:32:41PM +1300, Jethro Carr wrote:
> It also needs to be secure, as
> it's to run across a wifi network.

Make all wifi connections use OpenVPN, that way you can effectively add
security/encryption over the top of the wireless LAN without the
applications being aware of it.

> If it was linux server & windows client I would use samba, but I'm not
> sure if it can be used for linux clients, or even if it should.

Samba can and should be used for unix-unix connectivity, as long as you
turn on the "unix extensions", use the CIFS filesystem (not smbfs), and
ensure that you have the same username/uid/gids across all machines.

The "right" way to do this for larger installations is to use some LDAP
backend, and hook it in to PAM. Samba actually provides everything you
need for this, but there are other ways to do it.

However, a "correct" LDAP setup is still complex, so you might be happy
with just manually keeping accounts/password in sync.

Anyway, the only thing you have to figure out beyond a simple install of
everything is automounting directories (i.e. /home/<user>) ...

-jim




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