Hello.


I need to create a service account on RHEL 5, and could use some advice one how to proceed. What I'd like to do is this:
1) it will not be possible to log in as the user
2) the user will have a home directory so that it has its own .bashrc file

I guess I can set the user up with a random password and never distribute the password, so that one can't log into that account. Is this the best option, or is there other ways of doing this? Alternatively, I can use the nologin shell.

Furthermore, in RHEL 5 "man useradd" says that there's a "-r" (if I remember correctly) option that can be used for creating service accounts. This option combined with "-m" option may give me what I need, but I can't seem to find documentation of what the "-r" option actually does. Does anyone know this?

Regards,
kenneho

useradd -r -m should do what you need. All it really does is select the UID from the lower range reserved for service accounts and will ensure the password doesn't expire. If you simply don't set a password on the account, no one will be able to login as that user. You can, however, still make use of it through sudo/su provided it has a valid shell.

Jon Hannah
Sr. Network Engineer
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