Solaris 8 User Administration Tools

• By Peter H. Gregory
• May 1, 2002
• Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Prentice Hall

This chapter is from the book
Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 8 Study Guide

5.2 Admintool

Admintool is the primary user account maintenance program. It is used by system administrators to create, modify, and remove user accounts.

The system administrator must log in as root to use Admintool. To start Admintool, type admintool& at a shell prompt. The Admintool program appears as shown in Figure 5–1.

Figure 5–1 Admintool

This initial view shows the system's existing user accounts. Select the Browse menu to manage groups. Figure 5–2 shows a sample Browse menu.

Figure 5–2 Admintool Browse Menu

Add User Account

To add a user, select the Edit menu, then Add. Fill in the userid in the User Name field, the user's name in the Comment field, and the home directory in the Path field. If the user is to belong to any other groups, add the group numbers in the Secondary Groups field. If you wish to impose password aging parameters, specify them in the Min Change, Max Change, Max Inactive, Expiration Date, and Warning fields. An example Add User screen is shown in Figure 5–3. Click OK or Apply to add the user.

Figure 5–3 Admintool Add User

Modify User Account

To modify a user account, select a user account in the main window by clicking on it. Then select the Edit menu, then Modify. An example Modify User screen appears in Figure 5–4.

Figure 5–4 Admintool Modify User

Lock User Account

Admintool can be used to lock a user account. This might be a useful alternative to removing an account (or changing its password) if you need to temporarily block access to the account. To lock a user account, modify it as you normally would, then in the Password pull-down, select Account is Locked. An example is shown in Figure 5–5.

Figure 5–5 Admintool Lock User

Delete User Account

Admintool is also used to delete user accounts. To delete a user account, select a user account in the main window. Then select the Edit menu, then Delete. Figure 5–6 for an example.

Figure 5–6 Admintool Delete User

Add Group

Adding groups with Admintool is as straightforward as adding users. To add groups using Admintool, select the Browse menu, then Groups. The list of groups on the system then appears. See Figure 5–7 for an example.

Figure 5–7 Admintool Groups

To add a group, select the Edit menu, then Add. Type in the number and name of the new group, then press OK. An example is shown in Figure 5–8.

Figure 5–8 Admintool Add Group

Modify Group

Use the Edit, Modify group menu items to change the name or members of a group. Group members are listed by name, separated by commas. An example is shown in Figure 5–9.

Figure 5–9 Admintool Modify Group

Delete Group

Admintool is also used to delete groups. See Figure 5–10 for an example. To delete a group, select a group in the main window by clicking on it. Then select the Edit menu, then Delete.

Figure 5–10 Admintool Delete Group