One thing that I’m sure most of us will agree on is how tedious and boring repetitive tasks can get. If you’ve ever found yourself bogged down by the repetitive task of creating user accounts on your Linux server (that’s oddly specific I know), then you’re in for a treat. I’m going to give you a quick and simple solution that’ll save you lots of time and effort.
The Task
Your company has employed many new developers. As a SysOps engineer, managing user accounts can quickly become a tedious task, especially when onboarding new developers. Manually creating users, setting up home directories, assigning groups, and generating passwords is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. But worry not because there’s a way to automate this entire process with a simple bash script. By automating the process for the repetitive tasks you free up your time for more important work. You’ll also minimize the risk of manual errors by using a script that handles everything consistently.
The Solution
Imagine you have a list of new employees who need accounts on your Linux server. Instead of creating each account manually, you can use a script that does all the heavy lifting for you. The create_users.sh script reads a list of employee’s usernames and groups from a text file where each line is formatted as user;groups, creates the users, sets up their home directories, assigns them to the appropriate groups, generates random passwords for them and log all actions to /var/log/user_management.log
How It Works
Here’s a quick rundown of what the script does:
- Reads User Data: The script reads a text file containing usernames and groups.
- Creates Users and Groups: It creates each user with their own personal group and assigns them to any additional groups specified.
- Sets Up Home Directories: The script sets the appropriate permissions for each user’s home directory.
- Generates Passwords: It generates a random password for each user and stores it securely.
- Logs Actions: All actions are logged for easy tracking and troubleshooting.
Get the Script
You can find the full script on my GitHub repository. Follow the instructions in the README to get started. It’s straightforward and easy to use, even if you’re new to bash scripting.
Also I got this case scenario from Nexascale in the cloud engineering cohort. Remember I got to join them as a technical writer. They’ve been a great resource for cloud training and if you are new to cloud you could join the cloud mentorship program to learn some wonderful stuff (It’s free)
Automating user creation on Linux is a fun thing seeing as it takes out all the “manual labour” involved. With scripts like these, you can simplify the process, reduce errors and save valuable time.
So you can go ahead to clone or download the script from GitHub and try it out and let me know. As always I’m open to contributions.
Also feel free to use it if it’s an actual scenario you find yourself in, where you have to automate your user management!
Stay Clouding!