Chapter4.User and Group Administration

Chapter 4. User and Group Administration

As the system administrator of a multiuser system, you are responsible for, among many other tasks, managing and controlling user access to system resources. Because SLES is a multiuser system, this chapter provides you with an understanding of how users and groups are identified, how this information is used to determine access privileges to data and applications, and how you can effectively manage user and group information. The following topics are covered in this chapter:

• User and group IDs

• System users versus regular users

• The /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group files

• Ways to create and update user and group information using YaST and command-line tools

• User account security considerations