steve@tweedledee (Steve Trainoff) (04/27/91)
Has anyone else noticed the following problem? All of the users in our Netinfo domain have global accounts. The other day someone tried to make an account that was only valid on one machine. When he created the local account the UserManager made no attempt to check to see if the UID it assigned this new user was already used higher up in the netinfo hierarchy. It just started counting at 21. Fortunately that was my UID and the next time I logged in I noticed that all of my files were suddenly owned by someone else. The solution was trivial but this might have created havoc. What gives? Another annoying thing is that if I want to create several global accounts UserManager asks me for the local and the server password after I try to save EACH account. Why doesn't it ask only once? PS. Kudos to Jayson Adams for a really nice news reader "NewsGrazer" -- ..STeve ------------------------------------ Insert pity maxim here... steve@tweedledee.ucsb.edu (NeXT mail)
cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu (04/28/91)
In article From: steve@tweedledee (Steve Trainoff)
Has anyone else noticed the following problem? All of the users in
our Netinfo domain have global accounts.
I imagine that by global accounts, you are refering to what NeXT calls
network-wide user accounts (see page 99, Sys-Admin manual).
The other day someone tried to make an account
that was only valid on one machine. When he created the local account the
UserManager made no attempt to check to see if the UID it assigned this new
user was already used higher up in the netinfo hierarchy.
Yes, I've seen this.
The solution was trivial but this might have created havoc. What
gives?
You already know what gives. InstallerManager does not consult NetInfo
to look for or avoid collisions in UID space. Until someone at NeXT
re-writes InstallerManager to incorporate this feature, it is your job
as Sys-Admin to maintain the one-to-oneness of the UID database for
your users.
At least you have no local user accounts on your system(s). If you did
and you installed a NeXTmail-server on your NetInfo system, you'd be
in for some other neat little "gotchas". The moral of the story is, if
you're going to install a NetInfo network and you want to have
network-wide user accounts, don't mix have local users _AND_ specify
that UID yourself.
--
"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,
and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche