Description of problem: We are using LDAP as directory service on our machines. This also applies to our diskless clients. We experienced all sorts of very strange effects with this when nscd would not run on our diskless clients (I don't know whether we would see the same effects in clients with a local disk image). It turned out that nscd would not run because /var/db/ was mounted read-only from the NFS server. Adding this directory to snapshot/files.custom and rebooting the diskless clients solved the problem. I would like to suggest adding /var/db/ to the list of default directories added to the snapshot/files file by system-config-netboot. Steps to reproduce: Set up a diskless client according to the system-config-netboot docs: https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-diskless-hosts.html Boot up the diskless client, and try to use LDAP. Actual results: nscd fails to start and LDAP doesn't function properly. Expected results: Diskless systems should be able to use LDAP without any additional configuration. Workaround: Customer was able to work around this by adding /var/db to snapshot/files.custom in the root/ directory. Additional info: This would help make life easier on admins that have to set up diskless systems in an LDAP environment.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion, but this component is not scheduled to be updated in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. If you would like this request to be reviewed for the next minor release, ask your support representative to set the next rhel-x.y flag to "?".
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2011-0829.html