Linux and desktops on isolated LAN

[Scott Ehrlich]

I have a Redhat Enterprise 5 server and a few dual boot WinXP w/SP2 and CentOS 
5 desktops, all on an isolated LAN.

I want to set up Samba on the Enterprise 5 box to permit the XP desktops to 
centrally authenticate to the server as a Windows domain controller, and thus 
don't have to worry about local accounts on the desktops.

All Linux boxes are configured with Firewall enabled and SELinux enforced.

For linux to linux (Enterprise to CentOS), what is the best way to establish 
user home directories that, when a user sits at a workstation and boots into 
Linux, no matter what desktop they sit at, they log into their home directory, 
even if they end up using multiple workstations to get their job done.

Finally, for now, what is the best way to parse data and user accounts to the 
desktops to share data preservation for backups?  As present, we don't have 
tape or raid, and they will take time to arrive.  So for now, the desktops will 
act as our backup media, too.   The plan will be to select a handful of user 
accounts and some centralized data and push a copy out to one desktop, and 
repeat for another desktop.

Thanks for any insights/input.

I'm still parsing through the results of the tape backup question I asked 
earlier.  I'll post those results in the near future.   Thus far, LTO3/4 format 
is the winner.

Scott

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