Startup with NetworkManager, autofs and LDAP

ypnos · 2014-02-21 18:39:10

Hello,

I am currently starting to deploy Arch Linux in our computer science lab. We have a central server hosting home directories and an LDAP directory. The LDAP is used for discovering NFS shares and user accounts, authentification. A DHCP server assigns IP addresses to the client systems. On the client we use NetworkManager, we also tried the dhcpcd service directly.

The problem is that on system startup, often services are started before the DHCP handshake is done and an IP address is acquired. This leads to bad behavior: autofs refuses to do anything useful until it is restarted. GDM hangs for a long time before it can do anything useful. PAM ldap authentification tends to fail until some unpredictable timeouts.

Is it possible to let the affected services are started as soon as the network connection is proper?

Thanks,
ypnos

Rexilion · 2014-02-21 19:21:49

Yeah, ditch NetworkManager and use netctl from ArchLinux.

You will get something like netctl-ifplugd@enp0s8.service that represents the state of your network.

Then at GDM and autofs service files add something like:

[Unit]
After=netctl-ifplugd@enp0s8.service

Another method would be to create a script that sets up the network together with a custom service file. This way you don't have to use netctl. SystemD 209 is going to contain a new basis network manager so you might want to keep that in mind.

ypnos · 2014-02-27 15:15:24

Thank you for your reply, I think this is exactly what I need.

Rexilion · 2014-02-27 15:20:09

Good to hear, please let us know how it goes.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-02-21 18:39:10

Startup with NetworkManager, autofs and LDAP

#2 2014-02-21 19:21:49

Re: Startup with NetworkManager, autofs and LDAP

#3 2014-02-27 15:15:24

Re: Startup with NetworkManager, autofs and LDAP

#4 2014-02-27 15:20:09

Re: Startup with NetworkManager, autofs and LDAP

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