Is it possible to make two computers have the same users, home directories, and users? As in if I login to one computer and add things to the home directory can you apply it to the other computer and if I add a user on computer 1 the user will be on computer 2.
Yes.
($HOME on NFS)
you mean two computers ? separated physically ?
Exactly. Two computers separated physically.
Put the home directory on one of them and mount NFS on the other. Of course on both systems the users/groups must be configured the same (with the same uersid and groupid numbers!). And also the NFS server system must be running when the other system is used.
That’s what NIS is for. And this cannot be done without a connection between the computers, the one that has the data on it should be on at boot of the second one. This is my situation:
1 Server: runs NIS- and NFS-server. /home is exported (amongst others)
2 The clients connect to the NIS server, which provides users and groups, they mount the /home NFS share from the server.
See that ‘yast-nfs-server’ and ‘yast-nis-server’ are installed. If not, install them, then start Yast, they are under ‘Network Services’. Help is available. Take care, you do need some basic understanding of networking. Without any connection, nothing will happen, since there is no network.
hcw, yes that works and I did get nfs to work but it really isn’t what I wanted but I see what you mean.
What do I use for the NIS domain name? I will go with nis. I don’t need step by step instructions I just need the answer to that question. I won’t be able to do anything but setup the server for some time because I am leaving my home for some time I’ll need to finish this later after I setup the server.
Does not matter, it is not related to the domain name you know from DNS.
What is rpc.ypxfrd?
LDAP can also play the role that NIS plays. And probably is as complicated to set up. One advantage though is that LDAP can be done over a single TCP port and that can be even ldaps for security.