I.1 About System Users and Groups

“Regular” network users rely on network services. System users and groups support those services.

Some NetWare administrators are concerned about the number of system users and groups on an OES Linux server. They wonder what functions system users perform, why there are “so many” of them, and how they impact licensing and network security.

The answers to these and other questions are found in the sections that follow.

I.1.1 Types of OES System Users and Groups

The users and groups that support OES services can be grouped into the three types shown in Table I-1.

Table I-1 Types of System Users and Groups with Examples

System User or Group Type

Purpose

Examples

Proxy User

Perform very specific service-related functions, such as

  • Retrieving passwords and service attributes

  • Writing Service information in eDirectory.

  • Providing a user ID (uid) that the associated service daemon uses to run.

  • afpProxyUser-servername

  • cifsProxyUser-servername

  • LUM_Proxy_user

System Group

  • Facilitate the management of system users

  • Provide access rights to service data on the server or in the eDirectory tree.

  • DHCP

  • DNSDHCP

System User

The daemons associated with the respective services run as these users.

  • wwwrun

  • iprint

I.1.2 OES System Users and Groups by Name

Table I-2 lists the users and groups that OES services depend on and use.

Table I-2 System User and Groups Listing

System User or Group

Object Type

Associated Service

AfpProxyUser-servername

Proxy User

AFP

(Archive Versioning Proxy)

The install admin is always assigned.

Proxy User

Archive and Versioning Services

arkuser

System User

Archive and Versioning Services

CifsProxyUser-servername

Proxy User

CIFS

DHCP LDAP Proxy

Proxy User

DHCP

dhcpd

System User

DHCP

DHCPGroup

System Group

DHCP

DNS Proxy

Proxy User

DNS

DNSDHCP-GROUP

System Group

DNS

hacluster

System User

Heartbeat

iFolderProxy

Proxy User

iFolder 3

iprint

System User

iPrint

Iprint (POSIX)

iprintgrp (eDirectory)

System Group

iPrint

LUM proxy

(optional)

Proxy User

Linux User Management

named

System User

DNS

ncsclient

System User

NCS

ncsgroup

System Group

NCS

NetStorage Proxy

Proxy User

NetStorage

novell_nobody

System User

CIMOM

novell_nogroup

System Group

CIMOM

novlxregd

System User

XTier

novlxsrvd

System User

XTier

novlxtier

System Group

XTier

server_name-SambaProxy

Proxy User

Samba (Novell)

server_name-W-SambaUserGroup

System Group

Samba (Novell)

server_nameadmin

Proxy User

NSS

www

System Group

Apache

Tomcat

QuickFinder

wwwrun

System User

Apache