System information

71Chapter 4 Setting Up Mac OS X Server
Protecting the System Administrator (root) Account
The administrator password you enter during setup is also used for the server’s System
Administrator user account, whose short name is root. The System Administrator (root)
account can be used to move or delete any le in the system, including system les not
available to a server administrator account or any other user account. You don’t need
root user privileges to administer your server.
Important: Protecting the root user password is very important, so it should not be the
same as another account’s password. After setting up the server, you should change
the password of the root user account.
To change the root user’s password, open the Accounts pane of System Preferences,
select Login Options, click the Edit button, click Open Directory Utility, and then choose
Edit > Change Root Password. If you don’t see an Edit button in Login Options, but do
see a Join button, click the Join button, click Open Directory Utility, and then choose
Edit > Change Root Password.
You can also change the root user’s password by opening Terminal (in /Applications/
Utilities/) and then entering sudo passwd root.
Connecting Your Server to a Directory Server
If your server can have its own users and groups, you can also set up your server to
import user accounts from an Open Directory server or Active Directory server in your
organization. To be able to import user accounts, your server must be connected to
the directory server. Imported user accounts have access to the same services as user
accounts you create on your server.