Re: [PLUG] UNIX administration survey

[JR Mayberry <mayberry0404@yahoo.com>]

I think hes asking .. 'how to add one user to many systems without having
to do it on every system'..

ie: having a master passwd file, and adding it only to that one file, and
having the distribution of that file to every server on your network be
automated..

not sure if you picked up on that, to much unrelated rambling..


On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, William H. Magill wrote:

> >   I was just wondering if any UNIX administrators out there could
> >   to explain to me what technologies they're using for distributed
> >   administration of their machines.  Examples: NIS, NIS+, Samba,
> >   Webmin, LDAP, etc.  
> >
> First off, define Distributed Administration....
> 
>         Distributed Administration tools allow multiple, different people
>         to add and create users, assign privledges, install software, etc.
> 
>         None of the tools you mention, with the exception of NIS are System
>         Administration tools, let alone distributed.
> 
> There are two basic levels of System Administration -- Administering
> the System and Administering Applications.
> 
> Administering the System deals mostly with:
> 1) installing and updating software that relates to running the box --
> Kernel upgrades, security patches, new relases of the OS, etc. If you have
> multiple boxes, you have version control issues across boxes -- keeping
> patch levels consistant, is always a problem.  (Compilers, Interpreters,
> etc usually are considered "system software"
> 2) monitoring the running system -- disk space, security intrusions, etc.
> 3) end user maintenance -- adding and deleting users, setting and enforcing
> disk quotas, etc. NIS can be used for this last function, but unless you
> have a lot of systems and a lot of users, it's more trouble than it is
> worth. 
> 
> Administering Applications deals mostly with
> 1) installing and updating software that relates to running the application
> -- an Appache web server, a SAMBA NT server, or some LDAP sever for
>         example. 
> 
> The day-to-day operation of the applications, and their administration is
> normally NOT a Systems Administration function.
> 
> >   I'm assembling this information so that I can give a
> >   presentation to my organization about how I can incorporate a
> >   Linux-based network that can work alongside the existing Windows
> >   framework.  
> >
> I'm not certain what you are really asking. It's pretty trivial to create
> two parallel networks that can work alongside each other. However, I doubt
> that is what you are really trying to say.
> 
> If what you really mean is provide Windows file services from a Linux
> server instead of an NT server, then that is a different kettle of fish.
> 
> One basic problem is -- if you have an NT server in the group, you must
> do everything the NT way, period. you have no choice, since Microsoft's
> server will not Interoperate with anything else. As long as the Microsoft
> server is the master, and everyone else does what it says, then all will be
> fine. But you will be using all Microsoft tools and techniques to
> administer everything.
> 
> NT clients can work with a SAMBA server with no problem. But if an NT
> server shows up, you will have excruciating problems trying to synchronize
> them. (If the two servers are kept completely independent, the Client can
> access both. But that is not usually what people want to do.)
> 
> -- 
>                         www.tru64unix.compaq.com
>                               www.tru64.org
>                              comp.unix.tru64
>                         
> T.T.F.N.
> William H. Magill                          Senior Systems Administrator
> Information Services and Computing (ISC)   University of Pennsylvania
> Internet: magill@isc.upenn.edu             magill@acm.org
> http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/
> 
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