LDAP-UX Client Services B.04.00 Administrator's Guide

Installing And Configuring LDAP-UX Client Services
Plan Your Installation
Chapter 214
If you merge your data into an existing directory, for example to
share user names and passwords with other applications, the
migration scripts can create LDIF files of your user data, but you will
have to write your own scripts or use other tools to merge the data
into your directory. You can add the posixAccount object class to your
users already in the directory to leverage your existing directory
data.
See “Import Name Service Data into Your Directory” on page 25 for
how to import your information into the directory and “Name Service
Migration Scripts” on page 160 for details on the migration scripts.
CAUTION If you place a root login in the LDAP directory, that user and
password will be able to log in as root to any client using LDAP-UX
Client Services. Keeping the root user in /etc/passwd on each client
system allows the root user to be managed locally. This can be
especially useful if the network is down because it allows local access
to the system.
It is not recommended that you put the same users both in
/etc/passwd and in the directory. This could lead to conflicts and
unexpected behavior.
• How many profiles do you need?
A configuration profile is a directory entry that contains
configuration information shared by a group of clients. The profile
contains the information clients need to access user and group data
in the directory, for example:
— Your directory server hosts
— Where user, group, and other information is in the directory
— The method clients use to bind to the directory
— Other configuration parameters such as search time limits
If these parameters are the same for all your clients, you would need
only one profile. You will need at least one profile per directory server
or replica. In general, it is a good idea to have as few profiles as
necessary to simplify maintenance. Look at the posixNamingProfile
object class in Appendix B, “LDAP-UX Client Services Object
Classes,” on page 187 to see what is in a profile to decide how many
different profiles you need.