is this possible? ldap auth

I got a new Xserve to replace my aging G4 Server and I’d really like to plug into our University’s enterprise. Tell me if what I’m thinking is doable because the Apple documentation has always hinted at it being possible but doesn’t come close to documenting it.

project part 1
We have an openldap server that houses all euid’s for all students and faculty/staff on campus. I’d like to provide my AFP services to my Mac clients by assigning them privileges via WorkGroup Manager based on their euids selected from our campus ldap server as opposed to creating local accounts on the Xserve and assigning privileges like I do currently. I think this is possible but so far I can’t get anything to show up in WorkGroup Manager but mapping errors. If I can know its possible I can hopefully come up with some useful questions for the openldap admin guy. I’ve read articles such as this that seem to show that this is possible but I don’t know much about ldap I guess because I have no idea what mappings need changing and I’m not for sure what this search base is supposed to be. What are some good starting questions for me to go the our ldap guy with to get this rolling if its possible?

project part 2
If the above is able to work I’d like to try to bind my clients to authenticate from the login window to my Xserve with the euid credentials that are held in the campus ldap directory. I guess I would be using Kerberos or something between the clients and the Xserve but at this point I can’t even get KDC to startup.

Sorry if my questions are lame, but a couple of years ago I got LDAP/SSL binding working in a test environment only for it to be very inconsistent and buggy and ended up having to do a rollout of all local accounts on Macs with another set of local accounts on the server to provide file services. I couldn’t find anything on the web at that time that said it would even work. Of course Apple wasn’t any help either.

I’ve found this site helpful for a number of years and I thank you guys for it.

T-