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

[Nicolas KOWALSKI]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 08:45:05PM -0400, Alfred von Campe wrote:
> We use NIS (ypbind) and Kerberos at work for all our Linux and Unix  
> systems.  Home directories are mounted via autofs from an NIS map.   
> Everything works just fine as long as all network resources are  
> available (however, things turn ugly when the NIS servers are not  
> reachable).  

Yes, NIS and autofs/NFS are usefull, but only in a fully connected 
environment.


> What are other strategies that you use to deal with off-network use in 
> an NIS environment?

I would suggest you configure their laptops outside of your 
NIS/autofs/NFS environment, create them specific accounts on the 
laptops, and make them use replication of their office home directories 
and resources on the laptop with Unison [1] (and ssh as a transport). 
This way, before they gome home/outside, they replicate from office to 
laptop their files; when they go back to office, they push back the 
modifications.

In my lab, this stragegy works well since years.


[1] http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

-- 
Nicolas