How to have many linux groups and many users in groups in linux + active directory network

Question

We just discovered that each linux group can hold only max users up to 1024 characters (/etc/groups line length).

My coworker set up ActiveDirectory and wants to map the groups and users (ca.2500) to those in AD. I am not very familiar with that so i just report what i heard and understood.

I guess in other intranets all the user permission management is done on application level but we were just curious if it would be possible with basic linux ( means glibc limitations ?)

Does it depend on NFS limits too, i guess?

Any pointers to some research are welcome, i did hard finding the right keywords googling.

Answer 1

It might be better looking for a PAM solution that makes use of AD.

Google finds someone who alleged that the following works in /etc/groups -

big1::123:joe,mary,fred
big2::123:pete,sam,may

Note the two groupnames share a common GID.