Cory Plastek's questions

I'm setting up an OpenLDAP server to authenticate users in a domain on Ubuntu 9.04.

What's interesting/strange is that in the newest version of openldap for Ubuntu, the default is not to use the /etc/ldap/slapd.conf file - instead it stores its configs in cn=config in the database (this has lead to some headaches trying to follow tutorials that specify slapd.conf instead of the newer version).

Whenever I try to add to the database using ldapadd, it returns ldap_bind (49) Invalid Credentials (even when I'm sure I'm using the right password).

The database doesn't have anything in it yet, so starting from scratch isn't a problem, I've just encountered this several times (even after reconfiguring slapd). What's the solution?

I'm trying to write a bash script (in Ubuntu) that will backup a directory using tar.

How can I do a check in the script so that it can only be run as root (or with sudo)?

For instance, if a user runs the script, it should say that this script must be run with sudo privileges, and then quit. If the script is executed as root, it will continue past the check.

I know there has to be an easy solution, I just haven't been able to find it by googling.

This is for a small company (12 developers) who haven't implemented any centralized user database - they've grown organically and just created accounts on computers as they needed.

From a management point of view, its a nightmare - 10 computers all with different user accounts. If a user is added to one computer, they manually need to be added on all the others(that they need to access). This is far from ideal. Moving forward and growing the business will mean exponentially more work as more computers/users are added/hired.

I know that some kind of centralized user management is sorely needed. However, I'm debating between Active Directory and OpenLDAP. Two current servers function as simple backup and file-sharing servers, both running Ubuntu 8.04LTS. The computers are a mix of Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04.

I don't have experience with Active Directory (or really OpenLDAP for that matter, but I'm comfortable with Linux), but if one solution outweighs the other then its warranted that I learn that.

Upfront cost isn't really an issue, TCO is. If Windows (SBS I'm assuming?) will save me enough time to make up for the increased upfront cost, then I think I should go with that solution.

For my needs, what solution should I be looking at implementing?

edit: Email is hosted off-site, so Exchange isn't necessary.