Date: Thursday, January 12, 2006
Due: Thursday, January 19, 2006
Administration of User Accounts
Administering to user accounts is one of the most basic elements of system administration. Unix and Linux systems are normally deployed in server-type settings where there are many users of the system. "Caring and feeding" of this user community is one of the central duties of the "SysAdmin". In order to demonstrate proficiency with setting up user accounts and removing them, you'll need to set up three (3) new user accounts; one by hand and one using some of the automated tools available in Unix. You will then want to remove these new users from your system.
First, follow the manual steps outlined in section 6.4 of the textbook to set up a new user account. Script your session so that it can be easily seen that you have done all these steps manually. Make the user name something easy to identify in your log file (e.g. newuser1). Be sure to test that the account works properly before "turning it over" to the perspective new user. Then use the built-in commands (useradd, groupadd, etc.) to set up a second user account. Then compare the two new accounts and report on any differences in their behavior or setup. Lastly, add a third new user using the Xwindows utility available on your Linux system. It is by far the easiest way to create new accounts but look at the entries it makes to the system files (/etc/passwd and /etc/group) and report on its behavior.
Once you've completed the creation task above, delete the first user account using the steps outlined in section 6.5 of the textbook. Remove the second user account by using the built-in commands (userdel, groupdel, etc.) and report on their differences. Lastly, remove the third user account that you created using the Xwindows tools. Describe, in detail, the differences in the three processes and any subtle differences that you noticed with them.