Tools for Managing User Accounts and Groups
The following table lists the recommended tools for managing users and groups. These
tools are included in the Solaris Management Console suite of tools. For information
about starting and using the Solaris Management Console, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks).
Table 4-7 Tools for Managing Users and Groups
Solaris Management Tool |
Purpose |
|---|
Users |
Manage users
accounts |
User Templates |
Create a set of attributes for a specific kind of
user like students, engineers, or instructors |
Rights |
Manage RBAC rights |
Administrative Roles |
Manage RBAC administrative roles |
Groups |
Manage
group information |
Projects |
Manage project information |
Mailing Lists |
Manage mailing lists |
Use the Solaris Management Console online help for information on performing these tasks.
For information on the Solaris commands that can be used to manage
user accounts and groups, see Table 1-6. These commands provide the same functionality as the
Solaris management tools, including authentication and name service support.
Tasks for Solaris User and Group Management Tools
The Solaris user management tools enable you to manage user accounts and groups
on a local system or in a name service environment.
This table describes the tasks you can do with the Users tool's
User Accounts feature.
Table 4-8 Task Descriptions for User Accounts Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Add a user |
Adds a user to the local system or name
service. |
Create a user template |
Creates a template of predefined user attributes for creating
users of the same group, such as students, contractors, or engineers. |
Add a user
with a user template |
Adds a user with a template so that user
attributes are predefined. |
Clone a user template |
Clones a user template if you would
like to use a similar set of predefined user attributes. Then, change only
some of the attributes as needed. |
Set up user properties |
Sets up user properties
in advance of adding users. Properties include specifying whether a user template is
used when adding a user, and whether the home directory or mail box
is deleted by default when removing a user. |
Add multiple users |
Adds multiple users
to the local system or name service by specifying a text file, typing
each name, or automatically generating a series of user names. |
View or change user
properties |
Displays or changes user properties such as login shell, password, or password options. |
Assign
rights to users |
Assigns RBAC rights to users that will allow them to
perform specific administration tasks. |
Remove a user |
Removes the user from the local system or
the name service. Optionally, you can also specify whether the user's home directory
or mailbox is removed. The user is also removed from any groups or
roles. |
For information about adding a user to the local system or name
service, see What Are User Accounts and Groups? and User Account Components.
Table 4-9 Task Descriptions for Rights Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Grant a right |
Grants a user a right to run
a specific command or application that was previously only available to an administrator. |
View
or change existing rights properties |
Displays or changes existing rights. |
Add an authorization |
Adds an
authorization, which is a discrete right granted to a role or a user. |
View
or change an authorization |
Displays or changes existing authorizations. |
For more information on granting rights to users, see Contents of Rights Profiles in System Administration Guide: Security Services.
Table 4-10 Task Descriptions for Administrative Roles Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Add an administrative
role |
Adds a role that someone would use to perform a specific administrative task. |
Assign
rights to an administrative role |
Assigns specific rights to a role that enable
someone to perform a task. |
Change an administrative role |
Adds or removes rights from
a role. |
For more information on using administrative roles, see How to Plan Your RBAC Implementation in System Administration Guide: Security Services.
Table 4-11 Task Descriptions for Groups Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Add a group |
Adds a
group to the local system or name service so that the group
name is available before you add the user. |
Add a user to a group |
Adds
a user to a group if the user needs access to group-owned
files. |
Remove a user from a group |
Removes a user from a group if
the user no longer requires group file access. |
For information on adding users to groups, see UNIX Groups.
Table 4-12 Task Descriptions for Mailing Lists Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Create a mailing list |
Creates
a mailing list, which is a list of user names for sending
email messages. |
Change a mailing list name |
Changes the mailing list after it is created. |
Remove
a mailing list |
Removes a mailing list if it is no longer used. |
For information on creating mailing lists, see the Solaris Management Console's online help.
Table 4-13 Task Descriptions for Projects Tool
Task |
Description |
|---|
Create
or clone a project |
Creates a new project or clones an existing project
if the existing project has attributes similar to what you need for the
new project. |
Modify or view project attributes |
Displays or changes existing project attributes. |
Delete a
project |
Removes a project if the project is no longer used. |
Managing Users and Resources With Projects
Starting with the Solaris 9 release, users and groups can be members of
a project, an identifier that indicates a workload component that can be used
as the basis of system usage or resource allocation chargeback. Projects are part
of the Solaris resource management feature that is used to manage system resources.
Users need to be a member of a project to successfully log
in to a system running the Solaris 9 release. By default, users are
a member of the group.staff project when the Solaris 9 release is
installed and no other project information is configured.
User project information is stored in the /etc/project file, which can be stored
on the local system (files), the NIS name service, or the LDAP directory
service. You can use the Solaris Management Console to manage project information.
The /etc/project file must exist for users to log in successfully, but requires
no administration if you are not using projects.
For more information on using or setting up projects, see Chapter 2, Projects and Tasks (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System.
