APPLICATION NOTE

Using DirectControl with Microsoft NFS Server

Using Centrify's DirectControl with Microsoft's NFS Server

Published: 6 December 2005

The goal of this Application Note is to build a solution to solve the scenario where you need to share directories on a Windows server out to UNIX, Linux and Mac clients using the UNIX NFS file sharing protocol. For this solution, you are looking to use a secure, central, Active Directory based identity store for UNIX user and group information. Access control for the shared files needs to be controlled using the user and group credentials that are stored in Active Directory.

This Application Notes explores methods for solving this need and includes information on how to set up Microsoft's products and DirectControl so that these two solutions share the same Active Directory based identity space for resolving user and group information.

This Application Note was tested using Solaris 8 and Red Hat Linux 9 as the UNIX client system. Implementation differences are noted in this document. While these steps should be applicable to other UNIX or Linux systems, the specific differences are not included in this document and therefore the steps should be used as a guideline only.

To implement this solution, you will need:

• Centrify DirectControl, which provides Active Directory-based identity, access control and policy services for UNIX, Linux and Mac systems. One key component used in this solution is the DirectControl NIS Service, an Active Directory-based NIS server.
• Microsoft's SFU product or Windows Server 2003 R2, which provide Windows-to-UNIX interoperability. One key component used in this solution is the Microsoft NFS Server.

Related Application Notes

• Using Centrify DirectControl to Enable Automounted UNIX Home Directories
• Using the DirectControl NIS Service