[Freeipa-users] Synology DSM5 and freeIPA

Thu Apr 9 23:44:56 UTC 2015

I have a somewhat related question.  Without kerberizing NFS, which I'll do
eventually since that needs all the clients to be migrated first, how does
one create home directories automatically ? The IPA server and NFS server
are different systems. I was able to verify that automatic home creation
works if the NFS share is exported to the IPA server with no_root_squash.
What's the proper way of doing this ?

The documentation says:

Use a remote user who has limited permissions to create home directories
and mount the share on the IdM server as that user. Since the IdM server
runs as an httpd process, it is possible to use sudo or a similar program
to grant limited access to the IdM server to create home directories on the
NFS server.

What would be the list of steps that would achieve this ? What are the
limited permissions that the NFS user would need ? Read + Write, but no
Delete to the /home directory ? Sounds like something that would need ACLs.
And where does sudo on the IPA server fit into this ?

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:51 PM, Roberto Cornacchia <
roberto.cornacchia at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Jakub.
>
>
> On 19 March 2015 at 21:23, Jakub Hrozek <jhrozek at redhat.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> > On 19 Mar 2015, at 21:18, Roberto Cornacchia <
>> roberto.cornacchia at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > It's possible that I'm simply not getting the point, or that I don't
>> understand the documentation correctly, but this is what I don't find clear:
>> >
>> > I had seen the instructions you pointed me at. These are not
>> specifically about home directories.
>> >
>> > However, this section is:
>> https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html-single/Linux_Domain_Identity_Authentication_and_Policy_Guide/index.html#homedir-reqs
>> >
>> > It first suggests that automatic creation of home directories over NFS
>> shares is possible: just automount /home and then use pam_oddjob_mkhomedir
>> or pam_mkhomedir to create homedirs at first login.
>> >
>> > But then it also suggests that mounting the whole /home tree could be
>> an issue, and says: "Use automount to mount only the user's home directory
>> and only when the user logs in, rather than loading the entire /home tree."
>> >
>> > That means that automatic homedir creation is out of the game, doesn't
>> it?
>> >
>> > That's what I find confusing. What's the recommended way?
>> >
>>
>> It really depends on your environment. For your size, it's perfectly fine
>> to NFS mount the whole /home tree and be done with it. Don't optimize
>> prematurely :-)
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > On 19 March 2015 at 20:49, Dmitri Pal <dpal at redhat.com> wrote:
>> > On 03/19/2015 02:46 PM, Roberto Cornacchia wrote:
>> >> Hi Dmitri,
>> >>
>> >> I do realise my question is borderline and I accept that it is
>> considered off-topic.
>> >>
>> >> I did post it here because I believe it's not *only* about NFS, but
>> also about its interaction with freeIPA. The issue of NFS home and in
>> particular about their creation is touched in all the links I posted (all
>> about freeIPA) and never really answered.
>> >>
>> >
>> > This is what documented and recommended:
>> >
>> https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html-single/Linux_Domain_Identity_Authentication_and_Policy_Guide/index.html#kerb-nfs
>> >
>> > RHEL6 has a similar chapter in its doc set though books have changed
>> significantly between 6 and 7.
>> >
>> > I do not see any chicken and egg problem there.
>> > The instructions show how to create home dirs on the first login.
>> >
>> > It mounts the volume and then creates dirs on it as users log in if
>> they are not already there.
>> >
>> > It is unclear what problem you see with doing it the way it is
>> recommended.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> Best,
>> >> Roberto
>> >>
>> >> On 19 March 2015 at 19:36, Dmitri Pal <dpal at redhat.com> wrote:
>> >> On 03/19/2015 05:29 AM, Roberto Cornacchia wrote:
>> >>> On 6 March 2015 at 11:15, Martin Kosek <mkosek at redhat.com> wrote:
>> >>> On 03/06/2015 10:56 AM, Roberto Cornacchia wrote:
>> >>> Hi there,
>> >>>
>> >>> I'm planning to deploy freeIPA on our lan.
>> >>> It's small-ish and completely based on FC21, so I expect everything
>> to work
>> >>> like a charm.
>> >>>
>> >>> Except one detail. We have Synology NAS station, which uses DSM 5.0.
>> >>> The ideal plan is to use it as host for shared NFS home dirs once we
>> switch our
>> >>> desktops to freeIPA.
>> >>>
>> >>> Great!
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Hello,
>> >>>
>> >>> The first thing I'm struggling  with is to find the correct approach
>> about NFS home dirs.
>> >>> The ideal setting would be:
>> >>> - home dirs on the NAS
>> >>> - IPA manages automount maps
>> >>> - home dirs are created automatically at first login
>> >>>
>> >>> The documentation I could find on these topics includes only
>> not-so-recent pages (anything I missed?):
>> >>>
>> >>> http://wiki.linux-nfs.org/wiki/index.php/NFS_and_FreeIPA
>> >>>
>> http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/FreeIPA_Guide/automount.html
>> >>>
>> http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/FreeIPA_Guide/users.html#home-directories
>> >>>
>> http://adam.younglogic.com/2011/06/automount-and-home-directory-creation/
>> >>>
>> >>> Now, I admit I don't have much experience with setting up NFS homes,
>> with or without freeIPA, so trying to get this done correctly in the
>> context of freeIPA and without clear howtos isn't very easy, but I'm
>> willing to get my hands dirty.
>> >>>
>> >>> The first problem I struggle with is on the correct approach.
>> >>> From the documentation above, I understand that there is a bit of a
>> chicken-egg problem about the creation of home dirs.
>> >>> On the one hand, it would be optimal to have automount maps to load
>> only single home dirs on demand, rather than the entire /home tree.
>> >>> On the other hand, if the /home tree is not available, then creating
>> /home/user1 dir automatically isn't really possible.
>> >>>
>> >>> Just mounting the whole /home tree would make things easier, but I
>> don't have a feeling of when it starts to become a performance issue
>> (assuming recent hardware and up to date software). 10 users? 50? 100? 500?
>> No idea.
>> >>> The realm I'm dealing with at the moment is in the range of 5-10
>> users and probably won't be larger than 50 in the next few years (and if it
>> will, it means things are going well, so what the heck ;)
>> >>> Also true that, with such few users, I could just create the homedirs
>> manually when needed (this is not an organisation where many users come and
>> go) and just mount the individually.
>> >>> Any tips about this?
>> >>>
>> >>> Best, Roberto
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >> Some of these questions are really outside the scope of this list.
>> >> You might consider asking them on the NFS list.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Thank you,
>> >> Dmitri Pal
>> >>
>> >> Sr. Engineering Manager IdM portfolio
>> >> Red Hat, Inc.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Manage your subscription for the Freeipa-users mailing list:
>> >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/freeipa-users
>> >> Go to http://freeipa.org for more info on the project
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Thank you,
>> > Dmitri Pal
>> >
>> > Sr. Engineering Manager IdM portfolio
>> > Red Hat, Inc.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Manage your subscription for the Freeipa-users mailing list:
>> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/freeipa-users
>> > Go to http://freeipa.org for more info on the project
>> >
>> > --
>> > Manage your subscription for the Freeipa-users mailing list:
>> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/freeipa-users
>> > Go to http://freeipa.org for more info on the project
>>
>>
>
> --
> Manage your subscription for the Freeipa-users mailing list:
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/freeipa-users
> Go to http://freeipa.org for more info on the project
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/freeipa-users/attachments/20150409/ed4e5612/attachment.htm>