Part III Services

Configuring a network client requires detailed knowledge about services provided over the network (such as printing or LDAP, for example). To make it easier to configure such services on a network client, the “service location protocol” (SLP) was developed. SLP makes the availability and configuration data of selected services known to all clients in the local network. Applications that support SLP can use this information to be configured automatically.

The NTP (network time protocol) mechanism is a protocol for synchronizing the system time over the network. First, a machine can obtain the time from a server that is a reliable time source. Second, a machine can itself act as a time source for other computers in the network. The goal is twofold—maintaining the absolute time and synchronizing the system time of all machines within a network.

DNS (domain name system) is needed to resolve the domain names and host names into IP addresses. In this way, the IP address 192.168.2.100 is assigned to the host name jupiter, for example. Before setting up your own name server, read the general information about DNS in Section 13.3, “Name Resolution”. The following configuration examples refer to BIND, the default DNS server.

The purpose of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is to assign network settings centrally (from a server) rather than configuring them locally on every workstation. A host configured to use DHCP does not have control over its own static address. It is enabled to configure itself completely and automatically according to directions from the server. If you use the NetworkManager on the client side, you do not need to configure the client. This is useful if you have changing environments and only one interface active at a time. Never use NetworkManager on a machine that runs a DHCP server.

Using Samba, a Unix machine can be configured as a file and print server for macOS, Windows, and OS/2 machines. Samba has developed into a fully-fledged and rather complex product. Configure Samba with YaST, or by editing the configuration file manually.

Distributing and sharing file systems over a network is a common task in corporate environments. The well-proven network file system (NFS) works with NIS, the yellow pages protocol. For a more secure protocol that works with LDAP and Kerberos, check NFSv4 (default). Combined with pNFS, you can eliminate performance bottlenecks.

NFS with NIS makes a network transparent to the user. With NFS, it is possible to distribute arbitrary file systems over the network. With an appropriate setup, users always find themselves in the same environment regardless of the terminal they currently use.

autofs is a program that automatically mounts specified directories on an on-demand basis. It is based on a kernel module for high efficiency, and can manage both local directories and network shares. These automatic mount points are mounted only when they are accessed, and unmounted after a certain period of inactivity. This on-demand behavior saves bandwidth and results in better performance than static mounts managed by /etc/fstab. While autofs is a control script, automount is the command (daemon) that does the actual auto-mounting.

According to the survey from http://www.netcraft.com/, the Apache HTTP Server (Apache) is the world's most widely-used Web server. Developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/), it is available for most operating systems. openSUSE® Leap includes Apache version 2.4. In this chapter, learn how to install, configure and set up a Web server; how to use SSL, CGI, and additional modules; and how to troubleshoot Apache.

Using the YaST FTP Server module, you can configure your machine to function as an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server. Anonymous and/or authenticated users can connect to your machine and download files using the FTP protocol. Depending on the configuration, they can also upload files to the FTP server. YaST uses vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Daemon).

Squid is a widely-used proxy cache for Linux and Unix platforms. This means that it stores requested Internet objects, such as data on a Web or FTP server, on a machine that is closer to the requesting workstation than the server. It can be set up in multiple hierarchies to assure optimal response times and low bandwidth usage, even in modes that are transparent to end users. Additional software like squidGuard can be used to filter Web content.