I'm implementing a web server with configuration and user files shared over NFS (Amazon EFS) as described here: https://serverfault.com/a/933566/81774
As part of my Apache configuration, I am running websites under different user names using mod_mpm_itk. How can I sync user names between servers without having to bake new user names into the web server AMI.
I'm assuming I can't just move /etc/passwd to NFS, as the server then won't boot without having NFS mounted?
Update based on comments:
There doesn't seem to be a way to load additional files with nsswitch.conf, only to query additional services according to this answer: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/210587
The downside of an additional service is to introduce additional points of failure.
Is it a feasible option to copy /etc/passwd from NFS when the server starts up and re-read it with pwck as described here https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/102336 ?