| Managing Linux with Active Directory the Centrify way |
Aug. 23, 2007
If you know what you're doing, you can get Linux and Samba to work very well with Active Directory. But it's not easy. If you want to get Linux and AD to work together smoothly without sweating, you should consider Centrify's new version of DirectControl.
Centrify has been specializing in getting Linux and Unix to work and play well with Microsoft Active Directory-based auditing, access control and identity management solutions for several years now. The latest release of Centrify DirectControl adds more than 25 new supported versions of Unix and Linux, includes enhanced Group Policy-based Apple Mac OS X desktop lockdown capabilities, and delivers the industry's first solution to leverage Group Policy to enable bulk configuration of distributed OpenSSH deployments.
According to the company, these new capabilities further enhance Centrify customers' ability to secure and streamline their heterogeneous environments by centralizing identity and policy management within their existing Active Directory infrastructure.
Others agree. "By extending its authentication and access control to the widest range of non-Microsoft operating systems, Centrify has made Microsoft Active Directory an appealing directory in which to centralize identity management in a multi-platform environment," said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group.
A Unisys system architect agreed. "It's the best tool out there for integrating Linux and AD. With Microsoft's recent interest in improving Linux/Windows networking interoperability, I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't bought the company."
Centrify DirectControl works by turning a non-Microsoft server, workstation or device into an Active Directory client. This, in turn, enables Windows administrators to secure Linux and Unix systems using their familiar AD authentication, access control and Group Policy services.
In particular, this release enables Centrify DirectControl managers to centrally configure the security settings of the popular OpenSSH open-source network connectivity program. For example. OpenSSH Group Policies let managers to control who is allowed to SSH to a set of computers; the time allowed for a successful login; and preventing root user login via SSH.
The company also claims that this edition of DirectControl is the first and only solution generally available on the market today to offer Group Policy support for Mac OS X systems. New policies have also been added for Macs, including the ability to control login and logout scripts with Group Policy as well as improved mobile user configuration management capabilities. This new release of DirectControl also offers enhanced integration with Apple Remote Desktop Administrator as well as Workgroup Manager.
In addition, this release gives network managers the power to use AD Group Policy to centrally configure the security settings. For example, it enables network managers to control who is allowed to SSH to a set of computers; set the time allowed for a successful login; and prevent root user login via SSH. DirectControl also adds Group Policies for the Windows' PuTTY open source SSH (Secure Shell) client.
Centrify DirectControl has long supported popular Linux distributions such as Red Hat Linux, Novell SUSE Linux, Fedora Core and Debian Linux, as well as popular Unix platforms such as Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP HP-UX, and Silicon Graphics IRIX, plus VMware ESX and Mac OS X. The latest release of DirectControl has added support for the following Linuxes:
* Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server 6.06 and 7.04
* CentOS 2.1, 3.8, 4.4 and 5.0
* Oracle Enterprise Linux 4
* Debian 4
* Scientific Linux 3.0.8, 4.4 and 5.0
* Fedora Core 5, 6 and 7
* OpenSUSE 10.1 and 10.2
With this release, Centrify claims that DirectControl's support for Active Directory Group Policy has been expanded to well over 200 out-of-the-box policies. These can then be used to globally apply consistent security and configuration settings for Unix, Linux and Mac computers and users.
"We are pleased to support all these new Linux distributions that our customers have been asking us to include," said David McNeely, director of product management at Centrify, in a statement. "Not only does Centrify lead in the number of platforms we extend Active Directory to, but we also offer the broadest and deepest set of Group Policies for non-Microsoft platforms and applications in the market today."
You can see the complete list of DirectControl's new platforms at the Centrify DirectControl site.
Steven J. Vaughan Nichols
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