Using CentOS Server to authenticate users on a mixed network

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kingrob

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We are sitting with a dilemma at the moment.....our company network will run CentOS servers + a mix of ubuntu + windows workstations/notebooks as clients.

The boss is not happy that we will have to buy server hardware + a Windows server licence + CALs just for network authentication, so is there a way that one of the CentOS servers can do the authentication for the clients?? Is it possible to run your whole network without a Windows server?
 
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kingrob said:
We are sitting with a dilemma at the moment.....our company network will run CentOS servers + a mix of ubuntu + windows workstations/notebooks as clients.

The boss is not happy that we will have to buy server hardware + a Windows server licence + CALs just for network authentication, so is there a way that one of the CentOS servers can do the authentication for the clients??
Click to expand...

Something like kerberos perhaps?

http://www.kerberos.org/
http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/
 
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Linux solution = http://directory.fedoraproject.org/

ooh and a pretty gui too :P

and features:
* Multi-Master Replication, to provide fault tolerance and high write performance
* Scalability: thousands of operations per second, tens of thousands of concurrent users, tens of millions of entries, hundreds of gigabytes of data
* The codebase has been developed and deployed continuously by the same team for more than a decade
* Extensive documentation, including helpful Installation and Deployment guides
* Active Directory user and group synchronization
* Secure authentication and transport (SSLv3, TLSv1, and SASL)
* Support for LDAPv3
* On-line, zero downtime, LDAP-based update of schema, configuration, management and in-tree Access Control Information (ACIs)
* Graphical console for all facets of user, group, and server management
 
We are using OpenLDAP and Samba to authenticate our users and you don't need a Windows PC, kingrob, where did you read that? Maybe I can help you out a bit.
 
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Thanks icyrus and s0lar! Getting some very useful info here.... :)

The BIG question.....is there something in linux that can apply group policy to any user, windows or linux? Say we want to disable usb ports on the client computer when they're logged into the network, etc.

I know Novell Intranetware 4.11 had that functionality back in 1998, so when you logged in to the network, a script ran & mapped your printers, applied group policy, etc.
 
VonPickle said:
We are using OpenLDAP and Samba to authenticate our users and you don't need a Windows PC, kingrob, where did you read that? Maybe I can help you out a bit.
Click to expand...

Sorry VonPickle, the article I read, assumed you had an AD server on the network. Very happy if I dont need a windows pc.
 
The OpenLDAP acts as the AD server, still rather new to the whole thing as we just started implementing it, but on the users we have moved over, it's working great, no Windows needed.
Let me dig up some of the sites I used and I'll post them here.

Also, group rules and policies work, everything is defined in scripts which are then passed onto the PC. For example, we allocate certain printers to different departments and things like that.
 
VonPickle said:
The OpenLDAP acts as the AD server, still rather new to the whole thing as we just started implementing it, but on the users we have moved over, it's working great, no Windows needed.
Let me dig up some of the sites I used and I'll post them here.

Also, group rules and policies work, everything is defined in scripts which are then passed onto the PC. For example, we allocate certain printers to different departments and things like that.
Click to expand...

So happy with this post!!!

Thank you VonPickle, might ask you a few more questions, but just happy that the company will be saving megabucks!! :)
 
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