On 8 August 2015 23:04:20 CEST, Nathan Moore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I'm using NIS (or have been at least) because I'm not a full-time
>sysadmin.  The cluster (~5 machines) is only used for teaching, its
>behind
>a firewall, and there's nothing important stored on it.  NIS was the
>easiest thing that allowed for shared home directories & logins at the
>time
>(without spending two weeks learning LDAP...)
>
>Is LDAP easy to configure?
>



Seriously, have a look at IPA which ships out-of-the box.  All you need is a yum install ipa-server, run the ipa-server-install and you have a really powerful yet simple tool to manage kerberos and LDAP.  Both through command line and a nice web-UI.

Further, all your other boxes just need yum install ipa-client and run the ipa-client-install for a fully automated configuration setup, which includes single-sign-on, automount and centralised access control.

I regret discovering the simplicity of IPA so late. It is really a nice package which have helped me out doing my ad-hoc sys-admin tasks far easier.  And it is very well documented as well.  And with IPA 4 shipped in SL7 there are a lot of improvements, including token based authentication (OTP/2FA).

If in doubt, just try it out on a disposable virtual machine.

--
kind regards,

David Sommerseth