13.2.5. Configuring Services: NSS

SSSD provides an NSS module, sssd_nss, which instructs the system to use SSSD to retrieve user information. The NSS configuration must include a reference to the SSSD module, and then the SSSD configuration sets how SSSD interacts with NSS.

About NSS Service Maps and SSSD

The Name Service Switch (NSS) provides a central configuration for services to look up a number of configuration and name resolution services. NSS provides one method of mapping system identities and services with configuration sources.
SSSD works with NSS as a provider services for several types of NSS maps:
  • Passwords (passwd)
  • User groups (shadow)
  • Groups (groups)
  • Netgroups (netgroups)
  • Services (services)

Procedure 13.1. Configuring NSS Services to Use SSSD

NSS can use multiple identity and configuration providers for any and all of its service maps. The default is to use system files for services; for SSSD to be included, the nss_sss module has to be included for the desired service type.
  1. Use the Authentication Configuration tool to enable SSSD. This automatically configured the nsswitch.conf file to use SSSD as a provider.
    ~]# authconfig --enablesssd --update
    This automatically configures the password, shadow, group, and netgroups services maps to use the SSSD module:
    passwd:     files sss
    shadow:     files sss
    group:      files sss
    netgroup:   files sss
  2. The services map is not enabled by default when SSSD is enabled with authconfig. To include that map, open the nsswitch.conf file and add the sss module to the services map:
    ~]# vim /etc/nsswitch.conf
    services: file sss

Procedure 13.2. Configuring SSSD to Work with NSS

The options and configuration that SSSD uses to service NSS requests are configured in the SSSD configuration file, in the [nss] services section.
  1. Open the sssd.conf file.
    ~]# vim /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
  2. Make sure that NSS is listed as one of the services that works with SSSD.
    config_file_version = 2
    reconnection_retries = 3
    sbus_timeout = 30
    services = nss, pam
  3. In the [nss] section, change any of the NSS parameters. These are listed in Table 13.2, “SSSD [nss] Configuration Parameters”.
    filter_groups = root
    filter_users = root
    reconnection_retries = 3
    entry_cache_timeout = 300
    entry_cache_nowait_percentage = 75
  4. Restart SSSD.
    ~]# service sssd restart

Table 13.2. SSSD [nss] Configuration Parameters

Parameter Value Format Description
entry_cache_nowait_percentage integer Specifies how long sssd_nss should return cached entries before refreshing the cache. Setting this to zero (0) disables the entry cache refresh.
This configures the entry cache to update entries in the background automatically if they are requested if the time before the next update is a certain percentage of the next interval. For example, if the interval is 300 seconds and the cache percentage is 75, then the entry cache will begin refreshing when a request comes in at 225 seconds — 75% of the interval.
The allowed values for this option are 0 to 99, which sets the percentage based on the entry_cache_timeout value. The default value is 50%.
entry_negative_timeout integer Specifies how long, in seconds, sssd_nss should cache negative cache hits. A negative cache hit is a query for an invalid database entries, including non-existent entries.
filter_users, filter_groups string Tells SSSD to exclude certain users from being fetched from the NSS database. This is particularly useful for system accounts such as root.
filter_users_in_groups Boolean Sets whether users listed in the filter_users list appear in group memberships when performing group lookups. If set to FALSE, group lookups return all users that are members of that group. If not specified, this value defaults to true, which filters the group member lists.
debug_level integer, 0 - 9 Sets a debug logging level.

NSS Compatibility Mode

NSS compatibility (compat) mode provides the support for additional entries in the /etc/passwd file to ensure that users or members of netgroups have access to the system.
To enable NSS compatibility mode to work with SSSD, add the following entries to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file:
passwd: compat
passwd_compat: sss
Once NSS compatibility mode is enabled, the following passwd entries are supported:
  • +user -user
    Include (+) or exclude (-) a specified user from the Network Information System (NIS) map.
  • +@netgroup -@netgroup
    Include (+) or exclude (-) all users in the given netgroup from the NIS map.
  • +
    Exclude all users, except previously excluded ones from the NIS map.
For more information about NSS compatibility mode, see the nsswitch.conf(5) manual page.