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Revision 1.2: download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Thu Feb 15 15:43:47 2001 UTC (23 years, 3 months ago) by harris41
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: HEAD
adding in some general descriptive information here.. setting up
the groundwork for going into more detail -Scott

    1: <HTML>
    2: <HEAD>
    3: <TITLE>LON-CAPA Managing user passwords</TITLE>
    4: </HEAD>
    5: <BODY>
    6: <H1>LON-CAPA Managing user passwords</H1>
    7: <P>
    8: Scott Harrison
    9: </P>
   10: <P>
   11: Last updated: 02/10/2001
   12: </P>
   13: <P>
   14: This file describes issues associated with managing user
   15: passwords on a LON-CAPA system.
   16: </P>
   17: <H3>Latest HOWTO</H3>
   18: <P>
   19: There are three main topics when considering user passwords:
   20: authentication, accessing the file system, and web-based access.
   21: </P>
   22: <P>
   23: Authentication is covered in a separate document.  I will briefly
   24: mention that LON-CAPA supports different kinds of authentication
   25: that can be customized for use within different institutional computing
   26: environments.  Authentication, whether it be related to web-based access,
   27: or accessing the file system, is strictly the job of library servers,
   28: not access servers.
   29: </P>
   30: <P>
   31: Web-based access is initiated through a javascript encrypted protocol.
   32: The server enables access to LON-CAPA from the client IP address until
   33: the user logs out, or time expires without any action made by the user
   34: on the web pages.  Web-based access is something which is implemented
   35: for the full range of users--from students to course administrators
   36: to content developers.  LON-CAPA relies upon the /home/httpd/lonUsers/
   37: directories to store information about password authentication for
   38: the users of a given system.
   39: </P>
   40: <P>
   41: Something which is not implemented for the full range of users, but
   42: which is reserved for content developers, is file system access.
   43: LON-CAPA provides for a wide range of file system access including
   44: SSH, Samba (Windows Network Neighborhood), Appleshares, an FTP.
   45: Three files are involved with coordinating file system access:
   46: /etc/group, /etc/smbpasswd, and /etc/passwd.
   47: </P>
   48: <P>
   49: Correctly handling the contents of /home/httpd/lonUsers directories,
   50: and the /etc/group, /etc/smbpasswd, and /etc/passwd files is of
   51: critical importance to ensure uninterrupted access to the LON-CAPA
   52: network.
   53: </P>
   54: <P>
   55: This document will be developed further.
   56: </P>
   57: </BODY>
   58: </HTML>
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