[CentOS] Strategy for using CentOS on laptops in an NIS environment

[nate]

Alfred von Campe wrote:

> Creating local accounts with the same UIDs and local home directories
> solves most of the problems.  However, I can't create a local account
> with useradd while ypbind is running because it complains that that
> account already exists.  Is there a better way to create a local
> account then "service ypbind stop; useradd...; service ypbind
> start"?  What are other strategies that you use to deal with off-
> network use in an NIS environment?

I haven't use NIS in a long time but you could just add the
account manually by putting it in the passwd/group/shadow file by
hand (what I do is build a master set of passwd/group/shadow files
and they are replicated to all systems using cfengine).

As for home directories perhaps something like AFS? Though AFS is
quite complex(or it was last I looked at it 6 years ago)

from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_File_System
AFS has several benefits over traditional networked file
systems, particularly in the areas of security and
scalability. It is not uncommon for enterprise AFS
cells to exceed fifty thousand clients[citation needed].
AFS uses Kerberos for authentication, and implements
access control lists on directories for users and
groups. Each client caches files on the local
filesystem for increased speed on subsequent requests
for the same file. This also allows limited filesystem
access in the event of a server crash or a network outage.

--

nate