HP XC System Software Administration Guide Version 3.0

Note
A customary practice is to assign a temporary password that the user changes with the passwd
command, but this data must be propagated to all the other system nodes also. See “Distributing
Software Throughout the System” (page 79) for more information.
• User identifier number (UID)
A default value is assigned if you do not supply this information; this value is usually the next
available UID. If you assign a value, first make sure that it is not already in use.
• Group identifier number (GID)
A default value is assigned if you do not supply this value.
• Home directory
A default value based on the login name is assigned automatically if you do not provide this
information.
• Shell
The default value is assigned if you do not supply this information.
• Expiration date
This value specifies when the account will be disabled. Bypassing this entry means that there is
no expiration date for the account.
The date entry must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
For more information about these and other commands, see useradd(8).
3. Use the useradd command to add a local user account on the golden client node:
# useradd options name
For example, the following command adds a user named John Adams with the login name adamsj.
This user will be assigned the password temporary, will use the Korn shell, and will be assigned the
home directory /users/adamsj, and default values for the home directory, UID, and GID.
# useradd -d /users/adamsj -p temporary -s /bin/ksh adamsj
4. Use the procedure in “Distributing Software Throughout the System” (page 79) to transfer and propagate
the files in the necessary files and directories, including the home directory for the user, the
/etc/passwd file, and the /etc/shadow file.
Modifying a Local User Account
You can change the information for a user account with the usermod command; a user can also change
some account parameters by using the passwd, chsh, and chfn commands on the local node. For more
information on these commands, see the corresponding manpages.
After the information is changed, it does not take effect on all the nodes until the files are propagated to all
nodes in the system.
Note
Make sure that users who change their user account parameters do so on the golden client node, or that
they notify you from which node they changed their parameters.
You must propagate these user account changes to all the other nodes in the system by using the
si_getimage and si_updateclient commands, as described in “Distributing Software Throughout the
System” (page 79).
98 Managing Local User Accounts