AIX

We have an environment of around 50 AIX LPARs. We use scripts for user and group account management but it is starting to get unwieldy to document and manage the accounts. It would be doable with scripts but before we dedicate resources to that, I was wondering if there is any product that you guys use/can recommend that can be used to remotely manage AIX user/group accounts or some sort of directory that the lpars can authenticate against. Just wondering what standard practice is out there. Thanks for any comments.

dsh - distributed shell, plain ssh can be use to solve the issue as well, all it requires it that you setup the proper security access.

---------- Post updated at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:04 PM ----------

oh, I didn't read carefully. You could consider ldap or nis for authentication of users. Perhaps implement nfs for user directories.

I agree with blackrageous - set up a LDAP server (maybe openLDAP) and have the LPARs authenticate against it using the AIX for LDAP packages, that come with the OS.
This Redbook helped me a great deal for the understanding and implementation of AIX authentication via LDAP.

If you already have a directory in your environment that supports LDAP, maybe you can just connect your LPARs to it.