CHAPTER 3

User Administration



This chapter discusses the user administration tasks that are performed by the delegated administrator. Those tasks are:

Creating a user
Editing a user's properties
Using a command line interface to perform tasks

Sarah Jones is the delegated administrator in the stream.com scenario example. Included in the following sections, examples and figures help to illustrate how Sarah Jones creates and edits a user account.

Creating a User

Delegated administrators can create new e-mail user accounts within their domain.

In the following task, Sarah Jones creates a new user account for Rachel Gonzalez. In addition to the figures, refer to the field descriptions for the syntax for each entry.


 

To create a new e-mail user account

  1. Click Create User on the navigation bar.
  The "Create a New E-mail Account" page displays.
 

FIGURE  3-1 Create User page

  2. Enter the requested data into the fields.
 

FIGURE  3-2 Create User Page with Data

  All fields are required, except for those that are marked as optional. The fields for creating a new e-mail account are:
  Login ID--the login identifier of the new user. This is the name that the user enters into the Delegated Management Console login page to log into the Delegated Management Console.
  example: rachelg
  First Name--the first name of the person who owns the account. This is an optional field.
  example: rachel
  Middle Initial(s)--the middle initial of the person who owns the account. This is an optional field.
  example: d
  Last Name--the last name (or surname) of the person who owns the account. This is an optional field.
  example: gonzalez
  Password--the password of the user account being created. Passwords must be more than four characters in length and can be made up from any characters. No matter what character is entered into the field, a dot or asterisk (depending on your specific platform) display.
  example: secret (appears as ******)
  Re-type Password--Identical to Password field. This checks that the correct password was entered into the Password field. It also allows you to check the user's password against something.
  example: secret (appears as ******)
  Preferred e-mail address--the e-mail address that will be shown on the "From:" header of any e-mail messages sent. This is the e-mail address that will be seen by anybody receiving e-mail from this user. The preferred e-mail address is considered a valid e-mail alias by the system. Like the Login ID, data that is entered into this field, is the part of the e-mail address that appears to the left of the "@" sign. You may choose to enter your login ID as your preferred e-mail address.
  example: rachel.gonzalez
  Additional e-mail addresses--aliases for the user's primary e-mail address. E-mail sent to any of the addresses specified in this field will be delivered to this user's mailbox. Only addresses within the user's domain can be entered into this field. This is an optional field.
  example: rgonzalez
  Disk quota--the amount of disk space allocated to this e-mail user. The "domain default" is set by your ISP administrator. This is an optional field.
  example: domain default
  3. Click Create User to apply your changes.
  The Create User confirmation page displays.
 

FIGURE  3-3 Create User Confirmation

Editing a User

Once a user account is created, the delegated administrator may wish to edit one or more of the user's properties.

Editing a user involves three steps:

  1. Search for a user's account.
  2. Select a user account from the search results.
  3. Edit the user's properties.

In the following task, Sarah edits the user properties for Brad Macduff.


 

To display the Edit User page

   Click Edit User on the navigation bar.
  The Edit User page displays.
 

FIGURE  3-4 Edit User page


Searching for a User

Before selecting a user account to edit, you must search for it. You can search for a user account using one or more of the following criteria:

Login ID
First name
Last name

Each search criteria field allows you to choose how the search is performed. Selecting Contains means that the search will find any occurrences that contain the field entry. Exact match means that the search will find any occurrences that match exactly with the field entry. The Begins with and Ends with selections tells the search to look for users that begin with or end with the specified entry.

You can also select the number of results that display on one page. The default is 40.

In the following task, Sarah Jones needs to edit the user properties for Brad Macduff. Sarah knows that Brad's user login begins with "mac".


 

To search for a user

  1. Enter the search criteria.
  In the example, Sarah enters mac into the login ID field.
  2. Select the search method.
  In the example, Sarah selects Begins with.

FIGURE  3-5 User Search Criteria

  3. Once you make your field entry or entries and select the search method from the field's menu, click Search to display the results.
  If all of the fields remain blank and you click Search, all the users in your domain display in the search results table.
 

FIGURE  3-6 User Search Results

  4. Find the user you wish to edit from the search results table, or perform another search.
  In the example, two users appear in the search results table. One of the entries is Brad Macduff.
  5. Once you select the user, click Edit Properties within the same row that the user is located.
  In the example, Sarah clicks Edit Properties in the row with Brad Macduff.

Editing the User's Properties

The delegated administrator has the ability to edit each user's properties. Once a specific user is selected, the e-mail user properties for that particular display.

FIGURE  3-7 User Properties


 

To modify a user's properties

  1. Enter or edit the data in the appropriate fields.
  The following fields are described in Step 2 of "Creating a User":
  First Name
  Middle Initial(s)
  Last Name
  Password
  Retype password
  Preferred e-mail address
  Additional e-mail addresses
  Disk quota
  2. Click Apply.
  The screen repaints with the words "User Parameters updated successfully" on the top of the page.

 

To delete a user account

  1. Click Delete (next to the "Delete this user account" field).
  A confirmation page appears asking you to confirm whether or not you wish to delete this user account.
 

FIGURE  3-8 Delete User Confirmation

Caution - A user account cannot be "undeleted" by the delegated administrator.
  2. Select either "Yes, Delete this user" or "No, Cancel delete operation" from the confirmation page.
  If you choose not to delete this user account, then the page returns to the user properties page. If you choose to proceed with the user account deletion, then a blank Edit User page displays with the words "User parameters updated successfully."

Enabling or Disabling a User

The delegated administrator can change the account status of a user to "inactive" or "active." If a user account is inactive, the user cannot log onto the system nor can e-mail be sent from that account. The user's mailbox remains and continues to receive e-mail. This function is useful if, for example, a user has not paid their e-mail account bill on time or if a user is on leave for an extended period.


 

To disable a user account

  1. Select Inactive (next to the "Account status" field).
  2. Click Apply.
  The screen repaints with the words "User Parameters updated successfully" on the top of the page.

 

To enable a user account

  1. Select Active (next to the "Account status" field).
  2. Click Apply.
  The screen repaints with the words "User Parameters updated successfully" on the top of the page.

Editing Vacation and Forwarding Rules

A delegated administrator can also edit the vacation and forwarding rules for a user. See "Vacation Rules" on page 42 for more information on vacation rules. See "Forwarding Rules" on page 41 for more information on forwarding rules.


 

To edit the vacation rules for this user

  1. Click Vacation Rules.
  The Vacation Rules page displays for the user. Make any changes necessary to the vacation rules.
  2. Click Apply.
  The screen repaints with the words "User Parameters updated successfully" on the top of the page.

 

To edit forwarding rules for this user

  1. Click Forwarding Rules.
  The Forwarding Rules page displays for the user. Make any changes necessary to the forwarding rules.
  2. Click Apply.
  The screen repaints with the words "User Parameters updated successfully" on the top of the page.

Using CLIs

If the ISP provides you with a UNIX shell account, you can perform some of the tasks using command line interfaces (CLIs). In order to do this, you should be familiar with UNIX.

The CLIs available for user tasks are:

Creating (adding) a user: imadmin add user
Editing a user's properties: imadmin modify user
Deleting a user: imadmin delete user

For details on the usage and syntax of the commands, see the UNIX man pages available for each command.



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