Setting | Explanation |
---|---|
Realm Name |
A Realm is a database of users with a specific name. Users can belong
to multiple Realms, but any given Resource is protected by a single
Realm, which is set up within the "Authentication Settings" page
for the Resource.
Each Realm has its own list of users and group definitions. Depending on your requirements, you can either have one user database per Realm, or share a user database across several Realms. For example, the default installation configuration sets up multiple Realms, with the administration and configuration resources being protected by the "admin" Realm, whereas mail is setup by default to use another Realm, named "mail". Both Realms however share the same user database file, so there is a common set of user names and passwords. If you wished to separate out your users so that HTTP users and mail users are totally independent, then you would use separate database files for the two Realms. |
Group Name | The name of a group to which zero or more users can belong. It may not contain a colon ":". PowerWeb creates two groups within the Admin realm upon installation: "admin" and "tourist". Group "admin" is used to control access to all PowerWeb configuration and administration pages and commands. There is initially only one member of the "admin" group, namely user "admin". If you add further members to the "admin" group within the "admin" realm, they too will be able to access the administration facilities. |
User Name |
The name of a user defined in this realm. It may not contain a colon ":".
Under UNIX, this is not necessarily the UNIX user name, although using
the same name makes a lot of sense, especially when using the PowerWeb
mail server. PowerWeb user and password files can be chosen to be
compatible with the UNIX storage format, and hence share a common file.
PowerWeb allows you to create nested groups of users by simply placing square brackets around the name of the child group when adding new users to the parent group. So to create a nested group named "nested" within group "parent", fill in the realm name, set group="group" and user="[nested]" and click on the "Add" button. You can then add users to the new "nested" group. |
Password | The password chosen for the given user. You may not supply an empty password. |
Confirmation | This is to verify you typed the password correctly when adding a new user or changing the password for an existing user. |
Alias Name |
An alias to use for an existing user name. It must not be the same as
any existing user name in this realm. It may not contain a colon ":" Common uses for aliases include aliasing "PostMaster" and "WebMaster" e-Mail ids to a single user name. This means the system administrator only needs to examine one mailbox. Both these aliases are created for you automatically when PowerWeb is installed. |
Batch Processing Filename |
If this field is filled in, a bulk (or batch) operation occurs on each of the
users listed in the file. You must also fill in the realm name.
All operations other than "Find" are supported on a bulk basis. The format of the file is one user per line with the user name followed by a colon followed by the user's password in plain text. For each user listed, the result page describes the outcome of the operation. Processing continues until all users in the file have been handled. |
Command | Explanation |
---|---|
Add |
Adds a new realm, group, user or alias according to which input fields
are completed.
Adding a new user requires the realm, user name and password with confirmation. If you also supply a group name, then the user is automatically added to the specified group. If you also supply an alias, then that alias is automatically added for the new user. Similarly, to create a new group, simply fill in the realm and group name fields. |
Delete | Remove an existing realm, group, user or alias. In each case you must supply the realm name. |
Change | Complete the realm name, user name, password and password confirmation fields to change the user's password. |
Find |
Display a list of all matching realms, groups, users or aliases
according to the fields you fill in. Use wildcard patterns with "*"
and "?" for matching against names.
For example, to list all users within the realm "Admin", type in "Admin" for the realm name, and "*" for the user name. |
Verify |
Verifies that the realm, group, user or alias is defined, according
to the fields you fill in.
To verify the correctness of a user's password, fill in the realm name, the user name and the password fields. Note that you only verify and not query the user's password because it is stored in a one-way encrypted format. |