networking/server confusion

[linearfish]

I feel a little stupid asking this but this seems to extend beyond my computer expertise. I've tried searching the forum and googled for hours but I'm just not clear on the terminology or apps that I need.

Here's what I want to do:

I'd like to set up a small office network with one machine that hosts all the profiles and operates as the firewall/file server. Then I want 2-3 other machines where users can log in and see the exact same desktop and access their files anywhere. I've heard this referred to as "roaming profiles" but I can't get a clear answer. I also want to be able to remotely manage the server and I think I can do this with ssh.

This doesn't seem to be that complicated, but I think my frustration is clouding my reasoning ability. If someone could just point me in the right direction: what to read, what apps to look into, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[niravmodiya]

hi
To create roming profile for users, you can use vnc server..it will allow your clients to login in server and allow them work with his/her directory.

Another way is using telnet..by telnet server you can login to server and work within his/her directory..

But if u want to provide GUI access to your clients then vnc server will be help ful to you.. it will work fine with linux and for ur client to login in to vnc server you have to download the vnc client software and install it on ur client machine..

refer http://vnc.com

With cheer
Nirav

[linearfish]

Thanks for the suggestion. I think what I'm looking for is Fedora Directory, though maybe it's a bit overkill. Is Fedora Directory available via yum?

[pparks1]

Here is a quick howto on FDS that I put together a while back
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=98414

Hope it helps.

[linearfish]

Thanks for the link. I'm running into the "GC out of memory" error that you warned about. The problem seems to be that there isn't an earlier version for FC5?

[pjfg]

Another option, with less overhead than FDS is to set up a NIS server, configure the other pc's as NIS clients and use automount to mount home directories via NFS. If you google for "redhat nis" there are plenty of guides out there. NIS just handles the identities; the key to roaming profiles is to mount the users home directories from the server when they log in.