SUMMARY: Account Management Software

From: <"David>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 17:03:48 EDT

Well, I'm finally getting this information back out, it's been a busy couple
of weeks. Because of some stuff around here, this information will be passed
on to whoever replaces me at MSOE.

My original question:

>I am looking for something to help me manage about 3000 student and 400 faculty
>accounts on a DEC 3000/400S running OSF/1 V2.1 in enhanced security mode.
>
>We currently have about 3000 student accounts on this system. After a term is
>finished, we want to disable these accounts and clean up the system, then only
>re-enable the accounts for students who are registered for the next term. But,
>during this same time, we would like the faculty to be able to access the
>system.
>
>XSysAdmin/XIsso just is not up to this task. Even if it was fast. :-) It would
>take me the whole week just to disable the accounts.
>
>If anyone has some leads on any software (freeware, shareware, or commercial)
>to help with this tasks, I would greatly appreciate it.

The two most promising answers were:

1.) <Daniel.Clar_at_supelec.fr>

>Did you look at Polycenter Fullsail ? I don't know exactly what is the status
>for CSLG customers but only the Infomix database is a royalty product.
>
>Daniel

This is something the new systems guy will take a look at as well as:

2.) <haymanR_at_icefog.uacn.alaska.edu>

>We are running Enhanced Security with Digital UNIX v3.0 and v3.2.
>
>I've got some code (setld loadable) which can administratively lock an account,
>unlock it later, change a password, create an account, set password triviality
>checking, and change a users UID and home directory. I use FUSE and RCS for
>developing this code, if that matters.
>
>Unfortunately it is designed for us, and doesn't yet have man pages or fully
>entered software engineering documentation (specification and design docs).
>Although it does have a usage string which is shown to the user if no flags or
>if a -? flag is entered. There is no explicit locking (semaphores, etc...) at
>this time for any of the functions, and there is a logging facility which
>timestamps success and failure attempts.
>
>I am currently on v0.07 of this utility, and the code may not be cleaned up
>to a level worthy to be called v1.0, but it is what we are currently using.
>The code is installed setuid root with group level access. Other groups
>specific to our setup are checked for within the code to allow or disallow
>other aspects of the code. The code is not SIA compliant - it assumes you
>are running Enhanced Security and will die miserably if you're not.
>
>I have created scripts (of lists of users) via awk'ing the passwd file since
>these utilities are run once per user per request, etc...
>
>I'd be willing to send/ftp you a tar file or a setld subset when I get it
>cleaned up a bit more... Hopefully I'll also get around to finishing up
>the documentation too.
>
>Randy M. Hayman
>haymanr_at_icefog.alaska.edu

Thanks Randy! I'll leave the new guy your address and this message so he/she
can talk to you about this.


Other replys received:

<nicolis_at_celfi.phys.univ-tours.fr>

>One solution would be to have an awk script go through the passwd file
>and replace the password field (i.e. the second field)
>with a star for the student accounts--that
>disables those accounts and lets everybody else do their work.
>After that you could have another awk script delete the files of users
>that won't have an account anymore. And so forth.
>My point is that the investment in writing these scripts isn't that heavy
>(unfortunately I don't have them since my system is very small--but they
>are straightforward Unix scripts) so they could be implemented without
>really going overboard--so I doubt commercial software would be cost-effective.
>Unfortunately I don't know of anything else--that's why I'd suggest you
>write something suited to your system.
>Hope this could help.
>Best regards
>Stam Nicolis
>nicolis_at_celfi.phys.univ-tours.fr


<david_at_lambton.on.ca>
>>
>> I am looking for something to help me manage about 3000 student and 400 faculty
>> accounts on a DEC 3000/400S running OSF/1 V2.1 in enhanced security mode.
>>
>
>I've got a program and a few scripts to do that here at lambton. Basically
>we keep several 'master' password files, one for each user type and
>merge them together into /etc/passwd. The faculty/staff/system/guest
>stuff stays constant, while the student one gets added to by a program
>which takes a list of current student records from our admin database.
>
>If you want to hack on the code it might be a starting point.
>
>All in all its pretty ugly, but it works here for about 3000 students
>and 500 faculty.
>
>Let me know if you want a copy.
>
>Dave
>-----
>David Grant (david_at_lambton.on.ca) VE3DGR +1 519 542-7751 x348
>Lambton College, Sarnia, ON, CANADA +1 519 542-6667 FAX

<evivar_at_eniac.rhon.itam.mx>

>Let me suggest something: why not use templates?
>If you're using templates for diferent groups (e.g. student for all your
>students and teacher for all the faculty), you can change the attributes
>of the accounts using XIsso. (modify default templates)
>
>I really dont know if you're using templates or if what you want is another
>management software. Feel free to ask me more about templates if you need
>the info.
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>| Enrique Sanchez Vivar | E-Mail: |
>| Centro de Computo | evivar_at_eniac.rhon.itam.mx |
>| Grupo de Redes | |
>| I.T.A.M. | |
>--------------------------------------------------------------

<wier_at_bobcat.etsu.edu>
>David - this came up about a month ago (towards the end of the spring
>semester). Unfortunately, I'm not on campus (won't be till September)
>so i can't be more exact. But if you can, you might want to look at the
>archives and search on "adduser".
>
...............................................................................
David Harrold harrold_at_msoe.edu
Systems Manager

Milwaukee School Of Engineering Phone: 414-277-7286
Computer and Communication Services Department
1025 N. Broadway Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202-3109
...............................................................................

"I remember when mice were trapped, windows were washed and eunuchs guarded
        the harem." -Unknown
Received on Thu Jun 22 1995 - 00:46:10 NZST

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