How to synchronize users, passwords, hosts, etc without NIS

nisscpsolaris

I am administering a very small solaris 2.6 network with 4 boxes total. Is it possible to use scp or similar to replace NIS for synchronizing users, groups, hosts, etc?

This network is only a small part of my job and I don't want to spend too much time on it, and I am worried the setup and maintenence of NIS will not pay off. I need it to behave like a proper multi-user system, when a user logs into any machine, the users, passwords, hosts, etc. are always the same.

Is there an easy way to do this with scp? Right now I copy /etc/passwd from one box to another with scp, but sometimes I make mistakes or forget a step, and scp inside of shell scripts don't seem to works so well since they require password authentication. Any recommendations would be welcome.

Best Answer

“I want to talk to people in the office down the hall, but there's no phone there, and I don't know how to install one. What is the best way to set up a string and paper cups between the offices?”

Any solution you come up with other than normal NIS or LDAP will probably be "simpler" to set up, but will also be non-standard and error-prone. Consider using standard tools and facilities for standard tasks instead of reinventing yet another wheel. Please, think of your successor!

Related Topic