For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is a bit troubling. Laptops are typically used also when not connected to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable. This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available in Debian. Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze. It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.
LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
This is the traditional method with a twist. The password caching is provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd. The directory lookup and password checking is done using LDAP. If one want to use Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal. If one is happy having a local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of using libpam-mklocaluser. A setup for pam-auth-update to enable pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for bug #568577 is in the archive. Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/. This is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.These packages need to be installed and configured
libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site. Make sure the PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not sent in clear text to the LDAP server. I've been unable to get TLS certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback on how to get this working.
Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline caching until bug #485282 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one currently in /etc/nscd.conf. The changes are in the fields reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the instructions I found in the LDAP for Mobile Laptops instructions by Flyn Computing.
debug-level 0 reload-count unlimited paranoia no enable-cache passwd yes positive-time-to-live passwd 2592000 negative-time-to-live passwd 20 suggested-size passwd 211 check-files passwd yes persistent passwd yes shared passwd yes max-db-size passwd 33554432 auto-propagate passwd yes enable-cache group yes positive-time-to-live group 2592000 negative-time-to-live group 20 suggested-size group 211 check-files group yes persistent group yes shared group yes max-db-size group 33554432 auto-propagate group yes enable-cache hosts no positive-time-to-live hosts 2592000 negative-time-to-live hosts 20 suggested-size hosts 211 check-files hosts yes persistent hosts yes shared hosts yes max-db-size hosts 33554432 enable-cache services yes positive-time-to-live services 2592000 negative-time-to-live services 20 suggested-size services 211 check-files services yes persistent services yes shared services yes max-db-size services 33554432
While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf automatically like the one provided in bug #496915, the file content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the directory service on the machine. /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally look like this:
passwd: files ldap group: files ldap shadow: files ldap hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 networks: files protocols: files services: files ethers: files rpc: files netgroup: files ldap
The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group, shadow and netgroup.
With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home directory created and have the password as well as user and group attributes cached.
LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the LDAP database is available. I have not tested such setup, because I discovered sssd.
LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser
A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the sssd package from Redhat. It is part of the FreeIPA project to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux machines. The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and libpam-ccreds. It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS. Version 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010. Because the sssd package was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and version 1.2 is now in testing.
These packages need to be installed and configured to get the roaming setup I want
The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating /etc/sssd/sssd.conf.libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
[sssd] config_file_version = 2 reconnection_retries = 3 sbus_timeout = 30 services = nss, pam domains = INTERN [nss] filter_groups = root filter_users = root reconnection_retries = 3 [pam] reconnection_retries = 3 [domain/INTERN] enumerate = false cache_credentials = true id_provider = ldap auth_provider = ldap chpass_provider = ldap ldap_uri = ldap://ldap ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no ldap_tls_reqcert = never ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
I got the same problem here with certificate checking. Had to set "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.
With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to modify it manually.
If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.