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The Problem:
As our department has grown and the technology we are teaching has gotten more complex, we noticed two major problems that needed to be addressed. One was our need for security and control over our network and hardware. The other was ease of use and functionality for the students.
For the students, we needed to create an easy-to-use environment that would be consistant and seemless across Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and Linux. No special knowledge would be required for students to have their own files with them, no matter where they were working or what machine they happened to be using. We also wanted a to provide a way for them to customize "their computer" to make it look and feel comfortable to them, but have these settings work no matter which machine they use in either classrooms or labs. And, they needed to be able to have a unified account to use, that worked with all three major platforms we are using, Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and Linux (Debian).
On the security end of things we needed to have a way to lock down all machines in the department and not allow access to those who should not have it. However, as stated above, we needed to have a VERY easy to use system which was heterogeneous, that is, worked across multiple platforms. We also then had to make sure that student's files were secure and protected against others using the network.
The Solution:
We decided upon a combination which has proved itself to be very secure, stable, and cost effective. Our servers all run the open source Debian Linux Operating System, and all services we use to provide the Network Authentication system are all open source as well. Using a multiple server setup, we used LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), NFS (Network File System), and SAMBA to create this system.
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