Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Setting Up and Administering an HP-UX NFS Diskless Cluster
Planning Your Cluster Policies
Chapter 10 903
Policies for the Location of User and Group Data
Shared SAM configures the cluster such that /etc/passwd and /etc/group
exist only on the cluster server, but are made available to all clients
through the use of NFS mounts and symbolic links. Sharing these files
allows any user to log onto any system in the cluster using the same user
ID and password.
A change made to a user’s account information in these files can be made
on any member of the cluster and is visible immediately to the entire
cluster.
Private SAM arranges for each client to have its own copy of /etc/passwd and
/etc/group. Users in such a cluster will only be able to log onto those
systems to which they have explicitly been added.
If you want to share password and group data by some means other than
the NFS-based method provided by SAM, select the private policy for
this data and set up the alternate sharing method after clients have been
added. The most likely alternate sharing method would be the Network
Information Service (NIS). For further information on NIS, refer to
Installing and Administering NFS Services.
Policies for the Location of Home Directories
Shared SAM configures the /home directory on the cluster server to be mounted
by all clients. This makes each user’s files available on every system in
the cluster. Of course, access to those files may be restricted by
appropriate settings of the protection bits.
Private Each client maintains its own /home directory. Under this policy, a user’s
files are available only on one system in the cluster.
To share home directories across a collection of systems other than a
single NFS cluster, select the private home directory policy when you
create your cluster, then set up your alternate sharing mechanism after
clients have been added. For example, a collection of NFS clusters and
standalone systems could all NFS-mount their /home directories from a
single home directory server.