Hi Peter, I can't recall if I've seen a response here to your post, so here's my take on your problem: On Wednesday 19 July 2006 03:25, Peter Sutter wrote:
I am in a situation where "roaming profiles" are required (11 machines)
This statement sets forth a clear requirement. Its akin to saying "I need to drive a fully loaded 18 wheel semi tractor-trailer from New York to San Francisco in five days."
so that the desktop settings etc move with the user, i.e. the user expects his desktop on whichever workstation he logs in.
"If I leave tomorrow and maintain an average speed of 50 miles per hour, I'll meet my customer's deadline."
I was thinking that the easiest way would be to put /home on the server and do an nfs mount at login.
"According to my atlas, Interstate 80 is the shortest route and it looks like I'll just be able to make it in time."
Unfortunately the environment is a bit more complex, the clients run different linuxes, currently there are SuSE Linux V8.2, SuSE Linux V9.1, SuSE Linux V9.2, Ubuntu 6.06 and Fedora workstations.
"But the engine's due for a tune-up... it isn't tolerating steep or extended inclines very well... and descending steep grades is getting harrowing, too. The brakes start to fade if I let them get too hot." (note: "Mountain Time" is aptly named and *must* be traversed during this trip.)
I can't see how "roaming profiles" could easily be realised in such an environment, the question is can it be done without too much effort?
"What's the easiest way to make this trip?" Advise your client that in order to 'deliver their goods safely and in one piece' they've either got to loosen their deadline (expectations) a bit so you can schedule a tune-up and fix the brakes or you'll have to lease another rig and transfer the load to meet the deadline... for a bit more money. (This implies some OS and/or platform upgrades might be unavoidable.) It might be possible to standardize everybody on a 'least common denominator' minimal desktop with a limited menu of likewise 'least common denominator' applications... slightly earlier and stable packages that'll run equally well across all the boxes. How much effort this would be depends on a lot of missing details, but I'm sure you get the idea. hth & regards, Carl -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com