As far as I'm aware, there are 3 (common) ways to use Active Directory as the Authentication and Authorization for Linux hosts:
Is there a (current) consensus on which method is the best practice?
I've never been entirely clear on the pros/cons of each method to start with, but every document/tutorial says a different way and not many of them are dated or explain why they are using a particular method.
The approach I use now is SSSD. It's quite painless and the configuration files are clean. SSSD can be enabled at install time or just run via the authconfig command UI. I recently converted ~200 Linux servers to SSSD from local auth and used the steps below.
This assumes a Red Hat-like system (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora)...
1) Download SSSD.
yum install sssd
2). Modify the system's authconfig settings.
authconfig --enablesssd --ldapserver=ldap://dc1.mdmarra.local --ldapbasedn="dc=mdmarra,dc=local" --enablerfc2307bis --enablesssdauth --krb5kdc=dc1.mdmarra.local --krb5realm=MDMARRA.LOCAL --disableforcelegacy --enablelocauthorize --enablemkhomedir --updateall
3). Update the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file contents with the following:
# sssd.conf
[domain/default]
ldap_id_use_start_tls = False
ldap_schema = rfc2307bis
ldap_search_base = dc=mdmarra,dc=local
krb5_realm = MDMARRA.LOCAL
krb5_server = dc1.mdmarra.local
id_provider = ldap
auth_provider = krb5
chpass_provider = krb5
ldap_uri = ldap://dc1.mdmarra.local,ldap://dc2.mdmarra.local
krb5_kpasswd = dc1.mdmarra.local,dc2.mdmarra.local
krb5_kdcip = dc1.mdmarra.local,dc2.mdmarra.local
cache_credentials = True
ldap_tls_cacertdir = /etc/openldap/cacerts
ldap_force_upper_case_realm = True
ldap_user_object_class = person
ldap_group_object_class = group
ldap_user_gecos = displayName
ldap_user_home_directory = unixHomeDirectory
ldap_default_bind_dn = ldapuser@mdmarra.local
ldap_default_authtok_type = password
ldap_default_authtok = fdfXb52Ghk3F
[sssd]
services = nss, pam
config_file_version = 2
domains = default
[nss]
filter_users = root,ldap,named,avahi,haldaemon,dbus,radiusd,news,nscd
[pam]
[sudo]
[autofs]
[ssh]
