Delving into NFS and Automounts
Published on 27 Oct 2006 · Filed in Information · 240 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)The main goal in undertaking this effort is to create a structure in which hosts running Linux (typically CentOS) and Solaris 10 share common home directories. These common home directories will be NFS-hosted shares that are automounted when a user logs in. By combining this with CIFS-hosted shares (for Windows-based clients), we can provide common home directories for users regardless of the OS to which they are logging in.
The plan was to use Windows Server 2003 R2 as the NFS server. A server running CentOS 4.3 and a server running Solaris 10, both already configured for Active Directory integration, would be used as the clients. In addition, I was going to test connectivity from a Mac OS X client as well.
Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to make it work. I have the Server for NFS component installed on a newly-built file server, and I have all the Unix attributes all stored in Active Directory (UID, UID number, login shell, Unix home directory, etc.). But I can’t seem to get my head wrapped around the need for “User Name Mapping,” which is designed to match Windows accounts with Unix accounts. In this situation, the Windows accounts are the Unix accounts! I installed and configured User Name Mapping on one of the DCs, and configured the NFS server to use that server, but things still don’t seem to work.
Any Unix/NFS gurus out there care to help me understand this?