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I'd like to centralize all authentication on my network using something like an LDAP server. Clients consist of Windows and Linux servers.

I'm looking to manage authentication for virtualized servers in a multi-tenant situation. Thousands of VMs with hundreds of organizations. Skillset leans towards Linux, but I do have experience with Windows. It's only authentication I'm looking for. I do want something that can tie into dual factor auth later on. I use other tools for configuration management. Authorization is handled by the individual virtual servers and left to the tenants.

Please share your experiences with centralized auth!

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  • @Antonio - this isn't a review site, so if you could reword your question to let us know what things you need to know about authentication we should be able to come up with a few food answers. The FAQ gives good guidance on how to ask a suitable question (link at the top)
    – Rory Alsop ♦
    Commented May 29, 2011 at 11:38
  • Problem: I don't want to maintain login/password information on all my servers individually. Solution?
    – Antonius Bloch
    Commented May 30, 2011 at 18:51
  • Most folks don't read comments. So tt would help if you could edit your question to incorporate the extra info in your comments from here and below. Thanks!
    – nealmcb
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 16:47

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(This is probably not quite the answer you're looking for.)

I've managed to use Active Directory as an LDAP server and Kerberos KDC successfully in the past. It worked the the MIT Kerberos libraries (available on Linux and OSX clients); obviously, it works with Windows clients too. AD isn't open source, so it doesn't really answer your question.

I've heard doing it the other way (e.g. OpenLDAP server for Windows clients) was a bit more difficult, since the Windows clients were expecting a few specific pieces of information presenting in a certain way (not necessarily well specified), but this comes from informal conversations.

This might be of interest:

Without more details regarding what you're trying to achieve, it's difficult to be more precise. The solutions you'll be able to use are likely to depend on the following points (in no particular order):

  • Is it for a large network?
  • What skills to the IT authnz team have (more Linux/more Windows)?
  • Is it only for authentication?
  • What kind of attributes do you want to use across your machines?
  • How do you intend to deal with policies and authorization once you've authenticated the user?
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  • It's not the answer I'm looking for, but it may be THE answer. I'm looking to manage authentication for virtualized servers in a multi-tenant situation. Thousands of VMs with hundreds of organizations. Skillset leans towards Linux, but I do have experience with Windows. Yes, it's only authentication but I do want something that can tie into dual factor auth later on. I use other tools for configuration management. Authorization is handled by the individual virtual servers and left to the tenants.
    – Antonius Bloch
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 16:36
  • @Antonius its ONLY authentication?
    – Steve
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 14:41

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