Configuring client side authentication with LDAP in CentOS 7

In order to allow clients to be able to authenticate LDAP users we need to perform the following series of steps:

# yum install -y openldap-clients nss-pam-ldapd
# authconfig-tui

Do the following to enable LDAP authentication:

1. Put '*' Mark on "Use LDAP"
2. Put '*' Mark on "Use LDAP Authentication"
3. Select "Next" and Enter.
4. Enter the server field as "ldap://linux1.learnitguide.net/"
5. Enter the Base DN Field as "dc=learnitguide,dc=net"
6. Select "OK" and Enter

2. Test the Client Configuration.

Search the ldap user using the below command and check the output. If you get output, then our LDAP Configurations are working properly.

[root@cent ~]# getent passwd ldapuser1
ldapuser1:x:1005:1006:ldapuser1:/home/ldapuser1:/bin/bash
[root@cent ~]#

For the home directory to be mounted automatically you'd need to configure autofs or add an NFS entry in the /etc/fstab file.