What about the sudo command? Not at home right now but you can give users access to su commands via sudo. Can't remember the exact name of the file but its in the /etc directory. I think it /etc/sudoers or something like that. I edited mine manually. you can as root -
#/usr/sbin/visudo
The syntax of the sudo line is:
user machine=(effective user) command
first column specifies the sudo user
next defines the hosts in which entry is valid
the 3rd ( ) column is the effective user that may run the commands, this allows to execute commands other than root.
finally the last is the commands given or allowed by sudo command
Some examples:
For example:
joe home.net=(ALL) ALL
-joe has root commands on home.net server
joe home.net=(mailman) ALL
-joe has mailman commands on home.net server
joe home.net=(bind) /usr/sbin/rndc,/usr/sbin/named
-joe has bind and can run above commands (mdc and named)
You could:
joe MDKserver=(ALL) /sbin/shutdown
replace joe with your user name and MDKserver with the server name.
OK to be honest its late and I may have made a mistake somewhere here. If I did please correct me
or
$sudo --help