Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

2.3. Manually Configuring a Linux Client

The ipa-client-install command automatically configures services like Kerberos, SSSD, PAM, and NSS. However, if the ipa-client-install command cannot be used on a system for some reason, then the IPA client entries and the services can be configured manually.
  1. Install SSSD 1.5.x or later, if it is not already installed.
  2. On an IPA server. Create a host entry for the client. 
    $ ipa host-add --force --ip-address=192.168.166.31 client1.example.com
  3. On an IPA server. Create keytabs for the client.
    1. Log in as IPA; administrator. 
      $ kinit admin
    2. Set the client host to be managed by the server. 
      $ ipa host-add-managedby --hosts=ipaserver.example.com client1.example.com
    3. Generate the keytab for the client. 
      # ipa-getkeytab -s ipaserver.example.com -p host/client1.example.com -k /tmp/client1.keytab
  4. Copy the keytab to the client machine and rename it /etc/krb5.ketab.

    Note

    If there is an existing /etc/krb5.ketab that should be preserved, the two files can be combined using ktutil.
  5. Set the correct user permissions and, if necessary, SELinux contexts for the /etc/krb5.ketab file. 
    chown root:root 0600
system_u:object_r:krb5_keytab_t:s0
  6. Configure SSSD by editing the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf file to point to the IPA domain. 
    [sssd]
config_file_version = 2
services = nss, pam

domains = example.com
[nss]

[pam]

[domain/example.com]
cache_credentials = True
krb5_store_password_if_offline = True
ipa_domain = example.com
id_provider = ipa
auth_provider = ipa
access_provider = ipa
ipa_hostname = client1.example.com
chpass_provider = ipa
ipa_server = ipaserver.example.com
ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ipa/ca.crt
  7. Configure NSS to use SSSD for passwords, groups, users, and netgroups. 
    vim /etc/nsswitch.conf

...
passwd:     files sss
shadow:     files sss
group:      files sss
...
netgroup:   files sss
...
  8. Configure the /etc/krb5.conf file to point to the IPA KDC. 
    [logging]
 default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
 kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
 admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log

[libdefaults]
 default_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
 dns_lookup_realm = false
 dns_lookup_kdc = false
 rdns = false
 ticket_lifetime = 24h
 forwardable = yes
 allow_weak_crypto = true

[realms]
 EXAMPLE.COM = {
  kdc = ipaserver.example.com:88
  admin_server = ipaserver.example.com:749
  default_domain = example.com
}

[domain_realm]
 .example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
 example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
  9. Update the /etc/pam.d configuration to use the pam_sss.so modules.
    • For /etc/pam.d/fingerprint-auth: 
      ...
account     [default=bad success=ok user_unknown=ignore] pam_sss.so
...
session     optional      pam_sss.so
    • For /etc/pam.d/system-auth: 
      ...
auth        sufficient    pam_sss.so use_first_pass
...
account     [default=bad success=ok user_unknown=ignore] pam_sss.so
...
password    sufficient    pam_sss.so use_authtok
...
session     optional      pam_sss.so
    • For /etc/pam.d/password-auth: 
      ...
auth        sufficient    pam_sss.so use_first_pass
...
account     [default=bad success=ok user_unknown=ignore] pam_sss.so
...
password    sufficient    pam_sss.so use_authtok
...
session     optional      pam_sss.so
    • For /etc/pam.d/smartcard-auth: 
      ...
account     [default=bad success=ok user_unknown=ignore] pam_sss.so
...
session     optional      pam_sss.so
  10. Set up NFS to work with Kerberos.

    Note

    To help troubleshoot potential NFS setup errors, enable debug information in the /etc/sysconfig/nfs file. 
    RPCGSSDARGS="-vvv"
RPCSVCGSSDARGS="-vvv"
    1. On an IPA server, add an NFS service principal for the NFS client. 
      # ipa service-add nfs/ipaclient.example.com@EXAMPLE

      Note

      This must be run from a machine with the ipa-admintools package installed so that the ipa command is available.
    2. On the IPA server, obtain a keytab for the NFS service principal. 
      # ipa-getkeytab -s ipaserver.example.com -p nfs/ipaclient.example.com@EXAMPLE -k /tmp/krb5.keytab

      Note

      Some versions of the Linux NFS implementation have limited encryption type support. If the NFS server is hosted on a version older than Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, use the -e des-cbc-crc option to the ipa-getkeytab command for any nfs/<FQDN> service keytabs to set up, both on the server and on all clients. This instructs the KDC to generate only DES keys.
      When using DES keys, all clients and servers that rely on this encryption type need to have the allow_weak_crypto option enabled in the [libdefaults] section of the /etc/krb5.conf file. Without these configuration changes, NFS clients and servers are unable to authenticate to each other, and attempts to mount NFS filesystems may fail. The client's rpc.gssd and the server's rpc.svcgssd daemons may log errors indicating that DES encryption types are not permitted.
    3. Copy the keytab from the IPA server to the NFS server. For example, if the IPA and NFS servers are on different machines: 
      # scp /tmp/krb5.keytab root@nfs.example.com:/etc/krb5.keytab
    4. Copy the keytab from the IPA server to the IPA client. For example: 
      # scp /tmp/krb5.keytab root@client.example.com:/etc/krb5.keytab
    5. Configure the /etc/exports file on the NFS server. 
      /ipashare       gss/krb5p(rw,no_root_squash,subtree_check,fsid=0)
    6. On the client, mount the NFS share.
      • Always specify the share as nfs_server:/ /mountpoint.
      • Use the same -o sec setting as is used in the /etc/exports file for the NFS server. 
      [root@client ~]# mount -v -t nfs4 -o sec=krb5p nfs.example.com:/ /mnt/ipashare
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2026 Red HatBack to top