[CentOS] Using CentOS 5 as server; best way to setup NFSv4?

Fri Aug 1 23:44:27 UTC 2008
Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com>

On Fri, 2008-08-01 at 19:27 -0400, Ryan Dunn wrote:
> I've got a server running CentOS 5.2 and has a working NFSv4 server.
> I've been looking for some help on this on the net, but haven't come
> across anything that looks like it would pertain to my situation.
> 
> Basically, I've got a mixed distro environment (CentOS, Fedora,
> openSuSE, Ubuntu, Puppy, and yikes possibly a Windows box) on various
> desktops and laptops that I want to connect to my server.  Currently,
> I've got it setup so that it is only NFSv4 with a host mask.  My first
> concern is that it authenticates to the machine, not the user.
> Second, that the user is identifed by the UID on the local machine,
> not the actual user name.  Since Centos/Fedora start UID at 500 and
> Ubuntu/opensuse start at 1000, even though the names are the same, UID
> is not.  I'd rather not have to reID on half my machines Third, I know
> I'll need samba for the windows box.  So, if someone were to get on my
> local network and have the same uid as I have, then they could mount
> my shares as rw and have at it.
> 
> The ideal situation is that a user would logon to a local box, then
> when he wants to access a share, it sends the credentials to the
> server, and mounts the share.  This is all for my home setup;
> basically, I'd like to have my directories be mounted rw for myself,
> but if i have guests over, have them be able to mount read only
> (sharing pictures with family memebers that have laptops, etc).
----
You seem to be afraid of changing id's but that really isn't that
difficult - especially considering that it's a one time process...

http://docsrv.sco.com/UG_admin/uaT.chguid.html

next - you really should consider using ldap which is perfect for
maintaining a single account/password which can be used to authenticate
users on various machines (but that wont create their $HOME
directories). Bonus is that if you use LDAP, the samba users also have
the same uid.

NFS-4 seems to be overkill for a home LAN setup but if you do some
google searches or at least start with the official documentation on
setting up NFS-4

http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Deployment_Guide/
(see section on NFS)

Craig