State Audit Office of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
The State Audit Office of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, based in Schwerin, is the authority responsible for monitoring the budgetary and economic management of the state as well as the budgetary and economic management of the municipal corporations. The IT department of the State Audit Office of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the IT applications for its 90 employees.
Requirements
- Replacement of the Suse Linux Enterprise Server
- Central user management
- Uniform authentication of employees on Linux services and specialized procedures
- Stable operation and professional support
Solution
- Univention Corporate Server for central user management and authentication
- Connection of the IT services to the Identity Management of UCS
- Use of the Univention Corporate Server as central DNS server
Requirements
In the IT landscape of the state authority, various Linux applications have been used for a long time alongside other specialized procedures. In 2015, the decision was made to replace the previously used Suse Linux Enterprise Server, as the manufacturer’s product maintenance no longer met the requirements at the time.
Therefore, the IT managers were looking for a new Linux-based solution that would enable central user administration and user authentication for the various solutions in use. In addition to various Linux applications that enable user authentication using an LDAP interface, the State Audit Office of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern also uses solutions that require an Active Directory connection. In particular, the use of a stable solution and reliable support from the manufacturer was important to those responsible.
Solution
After an extensive test phase, the decision was made for a gradual migration to Univention Corporate Server (UCS) in 2015. During the migration phase, problems could be solved promptly, thanks to the cooperation with Univention support. For example, the server’s virtualized operation posed a challenge but could be solved well and quickly thanks to the support team’s assistance. Since then, the central user administration and the authentication of the users have been carried out through the internal UCS infrastructure.
The best of both worlds, thanks to LDAP and Samba 4
A particular advantage of UCS is the combination of the LDAP integrated into UCS with Samba 4 and its Active Directory functions. That makes it possible to connect Linux-based services as well as specialized procedures that require an Active Directory connection. The conclusion after the introduction of UCS at the State Audit Office: “It is especially advantageous for us that we can connect both the Linux services we use to UCS, but also services such as document management or time recording, which require an AD connection. By using UCS, we can use the best of both worlds and benefit from the resulting flexibility and central management concept.”
Reducing the effort for user administration creates new freedom for the IT department
With the UCS management tools, the typical efforts for user administration significantly reduced. Furthermore, the configuration of network-based services such as DNS and file services is centralized. The stability in the operation of UCS and the professional support from Univention’s support team are highly appreciated at the State Audit Office.