I would use Fedora 389 server for LDAP (supports multi-master for automatic updates and failover by having ldap.conf list dual servers!) What is used by the system for user auth should have no impact on home directories unless the source of user auth has different data for the home dir. <div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 3:25 PM, David Hopkins <<a href="mailto:dahopkins429@gmail.com">dahopkins429@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> A new charter school is opening this fall and has asked us (Newark Charter) to help set up their IT infrastructure. At NCS we used the samba+ldap roll our own approach for authentication. It has worked quite well. However, I'm considering using Active Directory + winbind instead but I'm not sure of all the pros/cons of this approach. Will it be transparent for logging onto thin clients? There will be a dedicated linux-based (CentOS) file server for home directories. Will home directories work as expected for the linux users? I appreciate any insights and recommendations on this. Sincerely, Dave Hopkins Newark Charter School _______________________________________________ K12OSN mailing list <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com">K12OSN@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn" target="_blank">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> For more info see <<a href="http://www.k12os.org" target="_blank">http://www.k12os.org</a>> </blockquote></div> -- -- James P. Kinney III As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome. - 2011 Noam Chomsky <a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a>