[BBLISA] Linux and desktops on isolated LAN

[Edward Ned Harvey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org 
> Subject: [BBLISA] Linux and desktops on isolated LAN
> 
> For linux to linux (Enterprise to CentOS), what is the best 
> way to establish user home directories that, when a user sits 
> at a workstation and boots into Linux, no matter what desktop 
> they sit at, they log into their home directory, even if they 

On your server, you should create an area (perhaps /home) that is NFS
exported.  All the other machines, in your /etc/fstab, you should make the
clients automatically mount server:/home onto /home.  Even more elegant is
to use automount (a bit tougher to set up).  You see, sometimes there's a
problem NFS mounting a filesystem through /etc/fstab, because the network
hasn't started yet, or stuff like that.  With automount, the fs won't
attempt to mount until you access something in that directory.  

> Finally, for now, what is the best way to parse data and user 
> accounts to the desktops to share data preservation for 
> backups?  As present, we don't have tape or raid, and they 
> will take time to arrive.  So for now, the 
> desktops will act as our backup media, too.   The plan will 
> be to select a 
> handful of user accounts and some centralized data and push a 
> copy out to one desktop, and repeat for another desktop.

Just like setting up the NFS export on the server, set up an NFS export on a
client.  Let the server mount the client, and then just tar or dump into a
file on the client.