Lab 1- User Management

Lab 1: User Management

Objective:

• To understand and practice user management tasks on a Linux system.

Topics Covered:

1. Creating Users
2. Modifying User Accounts
3. Managing User Passwords
4. Deleting User Accounts
5. Understanding User Groups
6. Group Management

Lab Exercises:

Exercise 1: Creating Users

1. Create a new user account named user1.
2. Set an initial password for user1.
3. Verify the creation of the user account.

# Create a new user account named user1
sudo useradd user1

# Set an initial password for user1
sudo passwd user1

# Verify the creation of the user account
id user1

Exercise 2: Modifying User Accounts

1. Modify the home directory of user1 to /home/users/user1.
2. Change the default shell for user1 to /bin/bash.
3. Verify the changes made to the user account.

# Modify the home directory of user1
sudo usermod -d /home/users/user1 user1

# Change the default shell for user1 to /bin/bash
sudo usermod -s /bin/bash user1

# Verify the changes made to the user account
id user1

Exercise 3: Managing User Passwords

1. Force user1 to change the password on the next login.
2. Set password aging for user1 to expire in 30 days.
3. Verify the password-related changes.

# Force user1 to change the password on the next login
sudo passwd --expire user1

# Set password aging for user1 to expire in 30 days
sudo chage -M 30 user1

# Verify the password-related changes
sudo chage -l user1

Exercise 4: Deleting User Accounts

1. Delete the user account user1.
2. Ensure that the home directory and files associated with user1 are removed.

# Delete the user account user1
sudo userdel -r user1

# Ensure that the home directory and files associated with user1 are removed
ls /home/users/user1   # This should return an error indicating the directory does not exist

Exercise 5: Understanding User Groups

1. Create a new group named staff.
2. Add user1 to the staff group.
3. Verify the group membership of user1.

# Create a new group named staff
sudo groupadd staff

# Add user1 to the staff group
sudo usermod -aG staff user1

# Verify the group membership of user1
id user1

Exercise 6: Group Management

1. Create a new user account named user2.
2. Assign both user1 and user2 to the staff group.
3. Remove user2 from the staff group.
4. Delete the staff group.

# Create a new user account named user2
sudo useradd user2

# Assign both user1 and user2 to the staff group
sudo usermod -aG staff user1,user2

# Remove user2 from the staff group
sudo deluser user2 staff

# Delete the staff group
sudo groupdel staff

Lab Documentation:

Provide detailed instructions for each exercise, including command syntax and expected outcomes. Include explanations of the purpose behind each task.

Tips:

• Explore additional user management commands (usermod, passwd, chage, groupadd, userdel, etc.).