7.6 User and Group Information

Both NetWare and UNIX use the same User and Group objects to get the required information.

When a user or group makes a request to access one of the services, by default it searches for the User object on eDirectory. The services can be configured to look for users and groups from a remote NIS database.

7.6.1 UNIX Users and Groups

The user information includes the following:

  • Username

  • UNIX User Identification Number (UID)

  • Home directory

  • Preferred shell

  • UNIX Group Identification Number (GID)

  • Comments

The Group Information includes the following:

  • Group name

  • Group Identification Number (GID)

  • Users present in this group

A typical UNIX system stores user account information in the /etc/passwd file and stores group information in the /etc/group file. You can migrate this data directly into eDirectory using the migration utility.

7.6.2 UNIX Usernames, Group Names, and ID Numbers

Each user uses a username to log in to the system. The UID identifies file and directory ownership information. The user’s UID can be a number between 0 and 65,535, with the numbers 0 through 99 usually reserved. (0 is usually assigned to the Superuser.)

NFS group names have identification numbers. The range of numbers is between 0 and 65,535, with the numbers 0 through 99 reserved. The GID identifies the user as a member of the primary group identified by that GID.

7.6.3 User Home Directories

The home directory is the absolute pathname of the user’s home directory on UNIX machines.

7.6.4 User Preferred Shells

The shell information identifies the path of the shell program that runs when the UNIX user logs in to the system. You can set the login account to run any program when a user logs in to the system, but the program typically creates an operating system working environment.

7.6.5 Handling UNIX User Passwords

The current implementation does not migrate the existing UNIX password field in the password map.

For information about UNIX user management, see Section 7.13, Migrating NIS Maps.