[K12OSN] mac OS X and win2003 and LTSP integration

[Joe Guenther]

Yes, the Mac OS X server is being replaced with Win2003 server with 
Active Directory. ... because in the near future this school will be 
joining the network of a neigbouring college, which will dictate the IT 
direction and they use Active Directory that we will have to be an 
"active" part of.  No it was not my recommendation, but we all know life 
is full of choices being made for us - we just have the task of making 
it all work.

Thanks for the excellent advice.  Seeing as the Mac DHCP server is 
seemingly not easy to customize, maybe I can get the LTSP server to hand 
the appropriate DHCP options to the Mac users as well. Yes the Mac also 
runs Open Directory to which the macs all over the school authenticate 
and get all their appropriate drive mounts..  I assumed as much that its 
DHCP was also telling the Mac clients "hey the Open Directory lives 
here..."  but you gave me good information to follow on how to get the 
Linux DHCP server to also pass on that info.

and of course the other option would be to configure a vlan throughout 
the Dell switches that are affected - later hoping that the older 3coms 
at the other end of the building will also talk the same vlan language 
when we go to expand the ltsp clients to more classrooms.

many thanks to the two of you.
Joe Guenther

Terrell Prudé, Jr. wrote:

> David Trask wrote:
>
>> "Support list for opensource software in schools." 
>> <k12osn at redhat.com> on
>> Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 2:10 AM +0000 wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> I had not thought of the separate vlan option to segregate the LTSP 
>>> from the rest of the LAN ... might be an option if the Mac OS X dhcp 
>>> cannot be configured to pass on the option root-path
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Joe....Mac OS X simply needs to be "on" in order for the Mac auth 
>> stuff to
>> work....it does not have to be doing anything or serving any IP's.  You
>> can have it serving IP's off a NIC that's not connected to anything for
>> example....I have a school that uses an E-Smith (SME server 6.01) box as
>> the DHCP server yet the Macs (this is Maine...we have Mac laptops for
>> every 7th and 8th grader in the state) authenticate and pull "profiles"
>> etc via LDAP and OD from an Xserve running OS X server.  So you can have
>> your cake and eat it too.
>>  
>>
>
> Unless I misread his original post, though, the OS X server soon won't 
> be there.  For some insanely stupid reason (yes, I'm being very 
> judgmental here), they're bringing in a Windows 2003 server "to 
> replace the Mac OS X server."  Of course, I hope that I did misread 
> that, since Windows servers don't speak industry-standard LDAP or 
> Kerberos.
>
> As for the VLAN bit, if your switches all speak either GVRP or VTP, 
> then you should be OK separating the LTSP stuff--and I mean both 
> server (eth0) and terminals--from the main LAN.  Then, eth1 on the 
> server can get hooked up to the main LAN.  The purpose of GVRP and VTP 
> is to allow propagation of VLAN settings throughout your LAN, thus you 
> don't have to reconfigure all your switches.  GVRP is the 
> standards-based one, and VTP is Cisco-proprietary (they licensed it to 
> Avaya for high dollars, I think).
>
> Another option is to have your router do the DHCP instead of a 
> server.  Like you, I too have a single-NIC K12LTSP server with its 
> DHCP server turned off.  We have Cisco routers on our LANs, and they 
> make terrific DHCP servers.  I'm actually using the Cisco router's 
> DHCP server to netboot not just the terminals, but also the thick 
> clients (Windows and a few Macs).  You simply include the appropriate 
> options in the DHCP scope and boom, off it goes.
>
> --TP
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