Re: Network Manager and NFS

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Thu, 2008-08-14 at 11:29 -0700, Robert Smits wrote:
> On August 13, 2008 03:30:21 pm The Holy ettlz wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-08-13 at 14:37 -0700, Robert Smits wrote:
> > > My workaround, which isn't entirely satisfactory, is to use ifup and
> > > dispense with network manager altogether. Unfortunately, that doesn't
> > > allow me to see other possible network connections and make quick and
> > > easy connections when I'm on the road.
> > >
> > > What I still don't understand, though, is why Network Manager isn't
> > > configured to deal with managing changing nfs networks.
> >
> > I think what you're asking for is called Network Location Awareness ---
> > how an interface distinguishes to which network it is attached, and then
> > the machine configures itself as appropriate. I think there a few
> > implementations of this [standards, anybody?] but personally I like this
> > one: authenticated DHCP, since it should also work securely for plain
> > old wired Ethernet.
> 
> Will that also work with fixed IP addresses?
> 
> From my point of view, SCMP already works, but I can't use it together with 
> Network Manager. Can we either configure Network Manager to work with SCMP or 
> SCMP to work with Network Manager? I don't know which route is more feasible, 
> largely because I don't understand from a technical viewpoint why the 
> programs  don't play nicely together. Is there a solution here that's easier 
> than re-inventing the wheel?

You'd use the currently connected network as _input_ to scpm to get it
to change the current profile, if I understand scpm correctly.  When NM
connects to a known network, then you can poke scpm to update your scpm
"profile" to the one you want for that specific network.  You could do
this based on the SSID of the wifi network (and the AP's security
options too, hopefully) or the MAC address of the DHCP server obtained
via ARP or something like that.

How do you change scpm profiles now?  Manually?

Dan

> > http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/papers/securecomm07authdhcp.pdf
> >
> > I've got a bit of time on my hands, I might code up my earlier HTTPS
> > idea.
> >
> > There's a whole bunch of things you can hook into changes in network
> > such as iptables, service daemons, etc., and of course NFS mounts. But
> > before that the relevant NLA infrastructure needs to be in place. This
> > means having (1) a mechanism to identify the network, and (2) telling
> > other processes (such as other config daemons) that we're on that
> > network. It should be up to the latter what action we take. NM already
> > has "network link awareness", viz. Pidgin and Evolution. Am I right in
> > thinking that the replacement for init is also dbus-aware?
> >
> > Of course, all this takes time ...and planning ;)
> 
> Yes, it does. And thanks for thinking about the issue. I appreciate it. 
> 
>