"Operating Systems Integration" Topics

[cw42]

I have a paper to write on Operating System integration, and I could use some ideas to get me started. I'm not asking u guys to write my paper, or anything... but has there been anything new in the tech world lately about this topic?

Here's the premise of what it has to be about...
"Your paper should research the areas of operating system integration. Specifically, what are the issues and non-issues of making various operating systems and machine types interoperable? At a minimum, you should discuss the Microsoft Windows family with Active Directory, as well as Linux/Unix with NIS and NFS. Discuss the ramification of multi-system integration on domain authentication, resource sharing, etc. Present solutions to make integration possible when there is no base level of compatibility (Samba, MS UNIX Services, etc). The superior paper will explore the details listed above as well as security, and other issues and contain illustrations, and references that support your conclusions."

 

[cleverhandle]

Um... well, what do you know about already? Then we could point out other interesting avenues to explore from there. I would think that in order to write such a paper successfully that you at least have experience with cross-platform file-sharing through Samba, since that exposes a lot of the basic authentication issues that you're going to encounter when trying to integrate *nix and MS systems. What do you know about LDAP? PAM?

 

[cw42]

To be honest, i don't know much about these topics. We've never really discussed them in class, and I don't have any experience setting these kinds of things up myself. I know a bit of Linux, but I don't know much about the server functions of Windows like Active Directory, Samba, and the others you mentioned.

 

[cleverhandle]

Then I think you're going to have a really hard time writing a convincing paper. Getting systems to play nice with one another involves a lot of details specific to the OS version, network structure, existing infrastructure, and so on. Here's a (very) short list of some major projects. You can browse their sites, look at the features, and see what you can do from there.

Samba - the big MS/*nix interoperability project. It allows cross-platform file and print sharing, network browsing, and some forms of authentication. Basically, a *nix machine running Samba looks like a Windows machine. The upcoming version, Samba 4, will provide the capability to imitate an Active Directory Domain Controller, which is a pretty big deal.

LDAP - a general-purpose directory services protocol which is used by Active Directory. OpenLDAP is an OSS project providing this service. LDAP is generally used to keep track of account information (user names, group membership, etc.), but it can do lots of other things too.

Kerberos - a highly secure network authentication service, the other major protocol used by Active Directory. Kerberos authenticates users without requiring passwords to be sent across the wire. Kerberos works through a rather complicated exchange of various sorts of "tickets" passed around a network.

MS Services for Unix - a Windows component that allows an MS server to emulate various (mostly obsolete) Unix server functions, like NIS and NFSv3, using information stored in Active Directory.

AFS - Andrew File System. A cross-platform distributed filesystem with many advanced features and correspondingly complicated administration. Because it authenticates against a Kerberos server and has well-developed client software for Linux and Windows, it is often used in large installations where interoperability and security are more important than ease of use.

PAM - Pluggable Authentication Modules. A *nix subsystem that allows relatively easy configuration of how individual machines authenticate users. Modules exist for PAM to authenticate against LDAP, Kerberos, Samba, traditional text files, DB databases, and many other things.


I'm sure I'm missing some others, too.

Good Luck.

 

[cw42]

Thanks for the info. Yep, I have alot to learn about this stuff.