[CentOS] NIS or not?

[Kaplan, Andrew H.]

We have been using NIS for over a decade on our network, and it has been an effective solution.
The network spans several subnets, and we have been able to deploy slave NIS servers on the various
subnets. The reason for this is several fold:

Quicker response for login and other domain requests
Network policy requires slave servers to be on subnets to reduce network traffic.

While the security is not as strong as it is for the LDAP solution, as long as you are employing
NIS on an internal network, you should be all set.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Sorin Srbu
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 4:03 AM
To: CentOS mailing list
Subject: [CentOS] NIS or not?

Hi all,

We're getting to a point in our linux environment where it's starting to be 
cumbersome to keep shadow and passwd-files up-to-date for the users to login 
on each computer. Scripts can only get us so far. 8-/

I've looked a bit into central login systems for linux, and NIS and LDAP seem 
to be prevalent. NIS being the simpler-to-setup solution for small to medium 
networks as I understand it, while LDAP is the more modern and scalable 
solution.
See eg http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/NIS.html or 
http://sysadmin-notepad.blogspot.se/2013/06/nis-server-setup-on-rhelcentos.html.

NIS-wise, what is a "small to medium network"?
We have currently about 20-30'ish linux clients and servers, and the 
environment is not likely to increase much beyond this point.
Is a 30ish-computer setup, a small network?

The only thing I'm trying to accomplish is a system which will allow me to 
keep user accounts and passwords in one place, with one place only to 
administrate. NIS seems to be able to do that.

Comments and insights are much appreciated!

-- 
BW,
	Sorin
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