System information

56 Chapter 5 Managing Users
About User Accounts
User accounts on your server allow users to gain access to services provided by the
server. A user account contains the information needed to prove the user’s identity for
all services that require authentication. A user account also provides a centralized place
to store a user’s contact information and other data.
Each user account can provide an email address, iChat instant messaging address,
personal calendar, and VPN remote access to your server. Users can also be members
of groups, authorizing them to access group resources such as a shared group folder,
group website, and group calendar. Of course, if any of these services is turned off,
then users don’t have access to it.
You can add new user accounts in the Users pane of Server Preferences by:
 Creating new accounts
 Importing existing accounts, if your organization has a directory server and your
server is connected to it
You can import user accounts individually. You can also automatically import all user
accounts that are members of a group.
New user accounts you create are stored in your server’s directory. Imported user
accounts remain in your organization’s directory server. You can supplement imported
accounts with contact information, group membership information, and so forth. The
supplemental information is stored in your server’s directory. When someone uses an
imported user account, your server automatically combines the account information
stored in the directory server with supplemental account information stored in your
server’s directory.