On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for +storing user home directories and data. The design for handling this +in Debian Edu / Skolelinux, is +to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on +the clients take care of the rest. I was reminded about the need to +document this better when one of the customers of +Skolelinux Drift AS, where I am +on the board of directors, asked about how to do this. The steps to +get this working are the following:
+ +-
+
+
- Add new storage server in DNS. I use nas-server.intern as the +example host here. + +
- Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow +all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust. + +
- Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because +tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops. + +
DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here. Follow the +instructions +in the manual (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting +started).
+ +Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the +relevant subnets or machines:
+ ++ ++root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server +Export list for nas-server: +/storage 10.0.0.0/8 +root@tjener:~# +
Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the +/storage export. With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to +netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the +NFS access.
+ +The next step is to update LDAP. This can not be done using GOsa², +because it lack a module for automount. Instead, use ldapvi and add +the required LDAP objects using an editor.
+ ++ ++ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD '(cn=admin)' -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no +
When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the +bottom of the document. The "/&" part in the last LDAP object is a +wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the +need to list individual mount points in LDAP.
+ ++ ++add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no +objectClass: automount +cn: nas-server +automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no + +add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no +objectClass: top +objectClass: automountMap +ou: auto.nas-server + +add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no +objectClass: automount +cn: / +automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/& +
The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in +tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount +directories using mkdir and running "mount -a" to mount them.
+ +When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on +the storage server directly by just visiting the +/tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any +workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.
+