terry@neurad.UUCP (Terry L. Ridder) (07/29/85)
Hello Fellow Wizards; I have a request to make of you, but first I will give you some background information. Background info: System Hardware: PDP11/44 Cipher dual density tape unit emulating a TS11 Controller for tape unit is Emulex TC12 4 RL02 disk drives, and DEC controller Qualogy (DSD) DSD440 unit ( dual 8 in floppy unit) 2 RK05 units. Console unit is an LA120. System Software: UNIX Version 6, with numerous modifications Operations: The computer is brought up each weekday morning any where from 6:00 am to 7:30 am. The system receives moderate use during the day. The system is shutdown each night by the last superuser leaving for the day. He must do the daily back up (if it is Monday-Thrusday, on Friday a weekly backup is performed.) The system cannot be left on if no one is there to supervise operations. Problem: There has been an increase in the office size and therefore more users on the system. The office has a variable day, i.e. arrive leave ====== ===== 6:00 2:30 6:30 3:00 7:00 3:30 7:30 4:00 8:00 4:30 8:30 5:00 9:00 5:30 9:30 6:00 10:00 6:30 10:30 7:00 11:00 7:30 The new people tend to work late. (6-7:00pm) The present superusers tend to work til 2:30 - 5:00pm. The last superuser takes the system down before he leaves, therefore the new people do not have the system available to do work on. BOTTOM LINE THIS DOES NOT MAKE MANAGEMENT HAPPY. My task as System Admin, is to come up with a method whereby the non-superuser user would be able to take the system down and preform the backups. My concerns are as follows: By allowing non-superusers to take the system down, I am afraid that we will be risking system crashes. Someone could take the system down during prime time use. Tape backups will not be done. The system will not be turned off in the proper order. (When I refer to the system being take down I mean that the system is turned off at the key, the key is removed and locked away in a safe. Then the circuit breakers are tripped.) I see no away to prevent the non-superuser from having superuser rights at some point in the process of taking the system down. I consider this extremely dangerous. The shutdown process is not friendly one bit. You have to change the switch register, numerous times during the process. My REQUEST: Do any of my fellow wizards have any idea as to how a system can be arranged so that a system can be taken down by a non-superuser. If not could you send E-mail which I could use in my report as to why we really do not want non-superusers taking the system down. I thank you for any and all help. Terry L. Ridder seismo!neurad!bilbo!root Presently at the DOD funny farm on Ft. Meade, Maryland -- ========================================================================= |UUCP: seismo!neurad!terry --OR-- seismo!neurad!bilbo!{root, tlr} | | | |US SNAIL: Terry L. Ridder | | 401 Cherry Lane E301 | | Laurel, Maryland 20707 | | | |Work Phone: 301-859-6271 --OR-- 301-859-6642 | | | =========================================================================