useradd - question about --non-unique option
 

I have not seen much documentation about this option and was wondering how/when/why it would be used.

I ask because I am trying to get a highly available (primary/secondary) solution up where user accounts and id's must be the same on each node. I was thinking of starting at 600 for my client accounts but it seems like the default is to use the next highest number less than 999.

I was wondering what would be the effect of having different user names have the same id like '503'. Does this mean that the users are simply alias's for each other when it comes to permissions on files/directories?

thanks

Doug

Yes, the permissions will be identical, so only a notional difference within the system. much better to have seperate uid's with a common gid.

thanks. I am really not trying to share any permissions via the uid/gid. This system will be partially automated when complete. The automatic part will include generating user accounts and this will need to be done on both machines. My fear is that an innocent user with root permissions (a.k.a manager) might install a tool or create a user on the side on just one box that will screw up the symmetry between the 2 machines. The home directories are being replicated via drbd but I can't do that with the passwd/group files. I am sure there is probably an NIS or other solution but I admit I know nothing about that stuff, I am not really a full admin and as usual I have a tight deadline.

Any ideas other than sending out mail saying don't create users or install software on these machines?

regards,

Doug