[BBLISA] Linux and desktops on isolated LAN

[Scott Ehrlich]

I have a Redhat Enterprise 5 server and a few dual boot WinXP w/SP2 and 
CentOS 5 desktops, all on an isolated LAN.

I want to set up Samba on the Enterprise 5 box to permit the XP desktops 
to centrally authenticate to the server as a Windows domain controller, 
and thus don't have to worry about local accounts on the desktops.

All Linux boxes are configured with Firewall enabled and SELinux enforced.

For linux to linux (Enterprise to CentOS), what is the best way to 
establish user home directories that, when a user sits at a workstation 
and boots into Linux, no matter what desktop they sit at, they log into 
their home directory, even if they end up using multiple workstations to 
get their job done.

Finally, for now, what is the best way to parse data and user accounts to 
the desktops to share data preservation for backups?  As present, we don't 
have tape or raid, and they will take time to arrive.  So for now, the 
desktops will act as our backup media, too.   The plan will be to select a 
handful of user accounts and some centralized data and push a copy out to 
one desktop, and repeat for another desktop.

Thanks for any insights/input.

I'm still parsing through the results of the tape backup question I asked 
earlier.  I'll post those results in the near future.   Thus far, LTO3/4 
format is the winner.

Scott