Re: OpenLDAP Automounter + Linux + Solaris 9

[Greg Matthews <gmatt@nerc.ac.uk>]

Hi Ric...

hope you dont mind, I'm going to cc this to the OLDAP list as it may be
useful to other people...

On Wed, 2003-10-01 at 17:23, Tibbetts, Ric wrote:
> Yours is a bit different. Unfortunately, I suspect that Linux would hit 
> the local files, and stop, without checking the ldap files.
> You might try this:
> In /etc/nsswitch.conf
> 
> automount files [SUCCESS=continue] ldap

this was a good idea... unfortunately tho it didnt work... I'm more and
more convinced that the linux autofs doesnt properly handle directives
in nsswitch.conf. It is also still somewhat hardwired to be NIS
orientated (the +<name> doesnt work for ldap for example). Until this is
fixed up it will always be inferior to the more flexible solaris version
- is anyone actually working on autofs? autofs4 has been on the cards
for ages but no sign of a release yet.

Incidentally Ric, presumably having the auto.master maps all in ldap
like you do, you cannot serve up 'program' type maps?

I know this isnt strictly OpenLDAP specific but please dont flame me
Howard! This list has the most LDAP related expertise I've found on the
net and maybe someone has found a solution to this or I'm way off beam.

below: outline of problem discussed privately


> -Ric
> 
> 
> Greg Matthews wrote:
> 
> >Hi Ric...
> >
> >thanks for the examples. Looks verys similar to what i've got altho I
> >have my auto.master and auto_master as local /etc/ files. I dont have
> >the same problem that you do as these files are automatically generated
> >anyway so the admin is fine.
> >
> >On Wed, 2003-10-01 at 13:49, Tibbetts, Ric wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>As to your requirement for local overides, that's a piece of cake. Just 
> >>make sure that in your /etc/nsswitch.conf you have:
> >>
> >>automount:  files ldap
> >>
> >>Then it will check the local flat files first, and LDAP second. So you 
> >>can do local overrides by just adding the proper entries to your flat files.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >no this doesnt work the way I want it to... for example, I have an
> >automount map containing linux packages called
> >nismapname=auto_packageslinux therefore in my auto.master (local or
> >remote) i have the line:
> >/packages ldap:nismapname=auto_packageslinux,dc=my,dc=base
> >
> >however, if I want to do a bit of development on a linux package I want
> >to have the directories local to me eg
> >/local/packages/linux/mynewpackage
> >
> >with NIS I could have this in the auto.master:
> >/packages /etc/auto_packages
> >
> >and this in /etc/auto_packages:
> >mynewpackage localhost:/local/packages/linux/mynewpackage
> >+auto_packageslinux
> >
> >which would have slurped up the NIS map as well to provide local
> >overides to the map. The Linux automounter does not do this for ldap.
> >The best I can do is have a complete copy of the auto_packageslinux map
> >locally with an extra line for my override:
> >
> >mynewpackage localhost:/local/packages/linux/mynewpackage
> >package1 server:/path/to/package1
> >package2 server:/path/to/package2
> >.
> >.
> >.
> >
> >I guess its not that common a setup but I'm disappointed with the Linux
> >automounter for other reasons too, I'm no coder tho so I wont be trying
> >to fix it up! It all works great on Solaris and with encryption.
> >Googling around I've found a few people that have written program maps
> >(usually perl) to get around these problems but I wont be going that
> >far.
> >
> >GREG
> >  
> >
-- 
Greg Matthews
iTSS Wallingford	01491 692445