[CentOS] Disappearing Network Manager config scripts

Thu May 1 17:52:40 UTC 2014
Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>

On 05/01/2014 10:56 AM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> I think I need to check with my manager - we do have a few RH licenses 
> - and maybe I, or several of us, should put in an enhancement request 
> for 7: DO NOT INSTALL NM by default *EXCEPT* for either a desktop, or, 
> better, a laptop install. DO set network up by default in all other 
> cases. Yes?
Maybe.

The wired use case that is most compelling for NetworkManager is that of 
per-user 802.1x, and enforcing that at login.  I could use that myself; 
coupled with something like Packetfence on the backend (with supported 
switches) you could get attached to any of a number of different VLANs 
based on who you are rather than what machine you happen to be using.

At an educational institution (or really anywhere that you might have 
guests who need certain access and users who need other access or 
accesses) being able to partition things like this is highly desirable, 
and that is the great promise of 802.1x authentication. You log in to 
the desktop, and you get your desktop and only those LAN resources for 
which you are authorized, and it's tied to your user ID and not to the 
machine.

This sort of thing is ideal for labs or any other public access machine.

And, yes, this is a desktop use case, not a server one.