NFS + pam_mkhomedir

[Chris Tooley]

Hello All,

I have a rather interesting problem that someone on this list may have 
encountered before.

Basically, we have users in LDAP/kerberos, with NFS automounted home 
directories.

What I currently do when we get a new user is add them into LDAP, 
kerberos, and then I manually (well, scripted) create a home directory 
with the username/uid/gid on the NFS server.

A user can then log onto any one of our lab machines, retaining their 
home directory and work no matter which machine they log into.

What I would like to do is cut out the home directory creation step and 
have that done for me automatically.

i.e. I add the new user to LDAP and Kerberos, then just tell them to 
login - their home directory gets created on first login.

I see that there is a PAM module for creation of local home directories, 
pam_mkhomedir - can this be used to create directories across an NFS 
implementation? Is that secure/recommended?  Is there a better method?

Thanks!
~Chris Tooley