About NON-System Users

There are two main types of non-system users in Lighthouse (non-system users include users other than root and users that exist for the purpose of providing services on the Lighthouse):

  1. Users added via the UI/REST API or Lighthouse config: These users are added by using the UI or the REST API (or even the ogadduser CLI command).

  • These users exist in the Lighthouse config/database and are visible in the UI and REST API

  • The users are added as standard Linux users and can be seen in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow

  1. Users added via [AAA] authentication: These users are created in the Lighthouse Linux system when the user doesn’t already exist locally and the user has successfully authenticated remotely via [AAA]

  • These users are simply added to the Linux OS and can be seen in /etc/passwd.

  • These users are NOT visible in the Lighthouse config/database or UI and REST API

Local Users Added by AAA Authentication

If a user does not exist locally on the Lighthouse when the user authenticates remotely via [AAA], then the user is added to the linux system but NOT into the lighthouse configuration/database. This means:

  • These users are not visible in the UI or config/database

  • These users are visible in /etc/passwd

Also, a user that is created locally after authenticating via [AAA] is automatically added to the netgrp group, even though that group may be disabled (which it is by default). About Groups.