Managing client authentication and authorization

About this section

This section covers the following topics:

LDAP-based UNIX client authentication

To enable authentication of UNIX clients through an LDAP server, make sure that LDAP is the first protocol entered on the password line of the /etc/nsswitch.conf file as described in Editing the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for LDAP.

LDAP-based Windows client authentication

You can authenticate Windows clients through an LDAP server. To enable authentication of Windows clients through an LDAP server, complete the following additional operations.

Run cifs setup on the storage system to be accessed, and specify NIS/LDAP as the authentication method to be used for CIFS clients on that storage system.
Configure the local security settings of each Windows client to use clear text (unencrypted) password authentication rather than Kerberos or other encrypted authentication methods.
Verify that your Windows clients have their userpassword attribute configured in the LDAP user database.

LDAP authorization for NFS file access from Windows clients

To enable authorization of Windows client access to UNIX files on an NetApp storage system that uses LDAP authentication, complete the following tasks:

On the storage system to be accessed, verify that the /etc/nsswitch.conf file specifies ldap as one of the passwd entries. See Editing the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for LDAP.
On the storage system to be accessed, verify that every CIFS user who needs to access UNIX files is mapped to an associated UNIX user name in the usermap.cfg file.
Verify that every associated UNIX user name has an entry in the LDAP database.

LDAP authorization for NTFS or mixed file system access from UNIX clients

To support authorization of UNIX client access to an NTFS or mixed file system on an NetApp storage system that uses LDAP authentication, complete the following tasks:

On the storage system to be accessed, verify that the /etc/nsswitch.conf file specifies ldap as one of the passwd entries. See Editing the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for LDAP.
Verify that every UNIX user that needs to access an NTFS or mixed file system has an entry in the LDAP database.
On the storage system to be accessed, verify that every UNIX user that needs to access an NTFS or mixed file system is mapped to an associated CIFS user name in the usermap.cfg file.