ccea3@rivm.UUCP (Adri Verhoef) (12/07/88)
A User Database system was to be set up at the Duke University. Unfortunately, their user database system "has died a slow agonizing death. A combination of politics, overworked staff and students, and hardware priorities has left the project on the back burner, without the burner even turned on.", so Neil G. Sullivan <cs.duke.edu!ngs> says. What user services do I want? A simple system for account maintenance under Unix. The system would be a database, which keeps track of current users on all machines. On one machine we would like to have a general user database. This database should contain all loginnames from all the password files. The database should contain (for each record): - the loginname; - the machinenames on which the loginname exists; - (probably) the password's age (but not necessary); - if possible, the machine where the loginname usually will receive mail. - the user ID (which must be unique with respect to the loginname); - the full user name (GCOS field); - the groupname, and - the group-ID (these last two ones should always be the same). An alternative would be to keep the group-IDs in a Group Database, for we would like to know on which machines this groupname exists as well, in which case this Group Database could contain: - groupname (Alphanumerical) - group-ID (Numerical) - full explanation of the groupname - on which machines the group exists Since all UIDs should be unique, the Database system should tell me which UID and GID I should use, when I want to add a loginname on a machine. When a loginname is deleted, the UID should be kept around in the database until a certain number, say 10000, is reached. After that, new users will get an unused UID between 100 and that number. This would be very useful to system managers. Of which I am one. At the moment we have some programs that handle user accounts and inactive users at every machine, but we don't have a user database that consists of all the important information from all the password files throughout the organization. We have a network that relies on UUCP connections. Our environment consists currently of about 620 users, and 3x VAX 11/750 8x 3B2 (at least) 1x Altos 986 12x microVAX 2x PDP 11/73 1x M380 i80386 2x VAX-3600 Sincerely, Adri Verhoef, mcvax!rivm!a3