Simplest way to share user/home directories in a small cluster in OpenSolaris?

[Lally Singh]

Hey everyone,

  I've got a cluster of 5 machines I just loaded up with the
OpenSolaris (200805) install.  While sharing home directories seems
straightforward enough with NFS support built into ZFS, I'm getting
some mixed signals on what to do about sharing user & group
information.

  NIS+ is apparently deprecated, leaving LDAP in its place.  So, a few
questions on that front:
  1. Am I correct in all this?  Is there a simpler way to do this than LDAP?
  2. Which LDAP server should I run?  Which has the best integration &
easiest install on OpenSol?
  3. How do I go about configuring clients?
  4. Which would be best for a later setup with running the Sun Grid Engine?

  Just to clarify, these machines are part of a compute cluster, used
by no more than 3 people.

  Sorry for such rudimentary questions, but my searches in
documentation, books, blog posts, etc., seem to suggest multiple
conflicting answers for some of this stuff.  More accurately, my
attempts at following some of their guidance has given enough problems
to make me doubt their applicability to OpenSol.

  Any guidance would be well appreciated.

  Thanks,

  -Lally

-- 
H. Lally Singh
Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Science
Virginia Tech