LAN Admin

1
LAN Admin

• Managing Users

2
Introduction

• Managing users is one of the more common tasks a
  network administrator performs on their servers
  or network
• A good, easy to use tool makes this every day
  task easier to approach
• NetWare 3.x introduces the administrator to
  SYSCON for that task
• SYSCON performs a variety of user and security
  management functions as this presentation will
  show

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SYSCON

• SYSCON is the primary tool NetWare administrators
  use to manage users and security on NetWare 3.x
  systems
• SYSCON has an extensive set of features
  specifically designed to make such management
  easier
• SYSCON biggest feature at the time was that it
  provided a menu driven, as opposed to
  command-line interface for that task

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SYSCON itself

• SYSCON itself resides in SYS\PUBIC
• While it is available to regular users, it only
  provides them with limited functionality
• SYSCONs full name is SYSCON.EXE and runs on the
  DOS workstation, but is stored and served from
  the server

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SYSCON features

• SYSCON manages
• User creation and home directory assignment
• User login scripts
• Trustee rights assignment for files and folders
• Group creation and management
• System and user login scripts
• User access including password restrictions,
  intruder detection, login times and station
  restrictions
• Auditing

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User Creation

• SYSCON manages the creation of users
• Users created receive a login name and home
  directory by default
• Other information such as full name, location,
  office number can also be added to a users
  account once created

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User time restrictions

• SYSCON can be used to restrict when users can
  login to the server
• Reasons for doing this could be for security or
  system maintenence

8
User station restrictions

• SYSCON can be used to limit which workstations
  can login
• This is done using MAC, AppleTalk, DLC or IPX
  addresses

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Group creation

• Groups are created using SYSCON
• Additionally, group members can be assigned via
  the group or via the user using SYSCON

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Password restrictions

• SYSCON can be used to set password restrictions
• These include
• Requiring a password
• Minimum password length
• Number of concurrent logins
• Intruder count and detection timeouts
• Password history list

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Login Scripts

• SYSCON can be used to edit both user and the
  System login script
• Best practice is to avoid creating individual
  user login scripts for two reasons
• First, if a user login script is present, the
  default login script doesnt run for the user and
  access to Public is lost
• Second, it become difficult to manage a bunch of
  individual scripts

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Login Scripts System

• Best practice is to create a system login script
  - SYSLOG
• This script runs for all users
• The default login script continues to run
• If this script becomes corrupt, even Supervisor
  may not be able to get back on the server be
  careful!

13
File and Directory Trustee rights

• Once you create a folder on a server, you need to
  assign directory trustee rights to the folder
• SYSCON can be used to assign both directory and
  file trustee rights

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Auditing

• Auditing allows a system administrator to monitor
  various server activities
• Server activities include login/logoff, file and
  directory access, disk activity charge, connect
  time, disk storage and service requests
• NetWare includes a Charge Rate formula based on
  Blocks Read which is calculated as 1 charge unit
  for 10 blocks read
• SYSCON can be used to change this rate

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Summary

• SYSCON is a powerful utility that is used to
  manage users and groups on a NetWare 3.x server
• Features include creating users and groups
  creating and editing login scripts setting user
  restrictions relating to passwords, machine login
  and access time
• SYSCON also manages system auditing