Re: Authentication in a Mixed Debian/Samba/Win2K Environment

[Andy <list@firman.us>]

> I have been asked to convert the engineers at a company from Win2K desktops
> to Debian.

Very nice.  This should be fun for you.

> What do people recommend for a directory service in this environment? 
> Everyone should be able to log onto every system, Debian or Win2K - there
> is no need to restrict that.

Good question.  I hope someone here can give us a good overview.
To expand on your question a bit....

How would one set up and configure a Linux environment in which all the 
Linux clients would "log on" to the main Linux server? (Debian of course)
Running Samba as a PDC would take care of the Win2K desktops.

This would be like a Windows environment where all the users log on to
the Primary Domain Controller and their home directories reside on the
main server for reasons such as: ease of administration, ease of one place
to backup all the data, and the ability to logon from any workstation on the 
network and have access to your "stuff" (home directory), and of course
the fact that if any workstation fails it does not cause any big problems.

So I have always wondered if one would use NFS to accomplish this?
How would you configure the Linux client machines to allow a user to 
logon to the machine but have the home directory on the main server?
In what way would you configure the main server?

Very big questions I know....just looking for an overview.

Thanks,
Andy