I am already running old windows 2008 server used for DNS Server and Domain Server. My users can use the office computer only if they have username registered in the domain server. Also, domain server makes it easy for clients to share files and devices and assign specific domain user who can use it.
Does linux (especially Ubuntu) has similar technology? I searched about NIS for some times, can I use that for the purpose? We are thinking to go to All Linux environment using ubuntu server and ubuntu desktops. But I also heard that NIS is old and dying technology. Is there better tech for windows Domain like support.
Back when I studied in SJSU, the computer lab for the CS department has three labs with Windows, Linux, and Sun Unix that all of them share the same user login. I created a user in the windows computer lab and immediately I can access the sun and the linux lab using the same username and password, and I can share my files saved in the central server throughout the three labs.
Please help and thank you in advance
Rendra
Best Answer
I can really recommend Zentyal Small Business Server - http://www.zentyal.org/ - for these tasks.
It works on top of Ubuntu LTS, but they also ship an installation cd for bare metal installation. Their goal is to replace Windows Server 2003/2008 with a free, Linux based alternative. And so far, they are one of the few that manage to pull it off, even with Windows 7 clients!
Installation is a breeze, you can select which features you need (router, dns, dhcp, gateway, domain controller etc.) and when you're done you can manage the whole thing through a nice web interface.
It's also not very hard to manage a heterogeneous network this way. Howtos on how to make Linux, Windows and Mac Clients authenticate against and store data on the server are readily available, and most of the Ubuntu Howtos work as well. It's still a normal Ubuntu underneath.
Go check it out - it's free and open source. The Company behind it lives on support contracts.
Just to clarify - in Zentyal you basically have LDAP, Samba and Kerberos tied together in one neat package. Primarily targeting the Windows Domain model, but Linux clients can use straight LDAP to authenticate or use advanced methods like Kerberos and authentication caching too.
Cheers, Jannik