Configuring administrator accounts

An administrator account is any account in the user backend that is assigned one or more privileges or is given access to read and write operations beyond that of a normal user entry.

The privilege mechanism is the same as that used for root distinguished name (DN) accounts and allows individual privileges to be assigned to an administrator entry.

Typically, administrator user entries are controlled by access control evaluation to limit access to the entire set of data in the directory information tree (DIT). You can grant fine-grained read and write access using the access control definitions available through the aci attribute. Administrator entries reside in the backend configuration, for example, uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com, and are replicated between servers in a replication topology.

The following examples show how to configure administrator accounts:

The first procedure shows how to set up a single, generic uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com account with limited privileges.

If you generated sample data at install, you can view an example uid=admin entry using ldapsearch.
The second example shows a more realistic example where the user is part of the administrators group.

Both examples are based on a simple DIT. Actual deployment cases depend on your schema.

Setting up a single administrator account

About this task

To create an example of a single, generic administrator account:

Steps

Create an LDIF file with an example administrator entry.

Example:

dn: uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: person
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: top
givenName: Admin
uid: admin
cn: Admin User
sn: User
userPassword: password

To add the entry, use the ldapmodify tool.

Example:

$ bin/ldapmodify --defaultAdd --filename admin.ldif

To add the access control instruction (ACI) to the root suffix or base DN to give full access to the new administrator, create another LDIF file.

The ACI grants full access to all user attributes, but not to operational attributes. To grant access to operational attributes as well as user attributes, use (targetattr = "*||+") in the access control instruction.

Example:

dn: dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: aci
aci: (targetattr = "*")
  (version 3.0; acl "Grant full access for the admin user";
    allow (all) userdn="ldap:///uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com";)

To add the entry, use the ldapmodify tool.

Example:
```
$ bin/ldapmodify --filename admin.ldif
```
To verify the additions, use the ldapsearch tool.

Example:

In the following example, the first command searches for the entry that contains uid=Admin and returns it if the search is successful. The second command searches for the base DN and returns only those operational attributes, including ACIs, associated with the entry.
```
$ bin/ldapsearch --baseDN dc=example,dc=com "(uid=admin)"

$ bin/ldapsearch --baseDN dc=example,dc=com --searchScope base "(objectclass=*)" "+"
```

Add specific privileges to the administrator account, then to process the modify operation press CTRL-D.

Example:

For this example, add the password-reset privilege to the administrator account from the command line.

$ bin/ldapmodify
dn: uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: ds-privilege-name
ds-privilege-name: password-reset

Result:

Processing MODIFY request for uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com
MODIFY operation successful for DN uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com

Assign a password policy for the administrator account.

Example:

Create an Admin Password Policy, then add the password policy to the account.

$ bin/dsconfig create-password-policy \
  --policy-name "Admin Password Policy" \
  --set "description:Password policy for administrators" \
  --set password-attribute:userpassword \
  --set "default-password-storage-scheme:Salted SHA-256" \
  --set password-change-requires-current-password:true \
  --set force-change-on-reset:true \
  --set "max-password-age:25w 5d" \
  --set grace-login-count:3 \
  --no-prompt

To apply the password policy to the account, run the ldapmodify command.

Example:

Execute the ldapmodify command with a bind DN that has sufficient rights, such as a root DN, as in the following example.
```
$ bin/ldapmodify
dn: uid=admin,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: ds-pwp-password-policy-dn
ds-pwp-password-policy-dn: cn=Admin Password Policy,cn=Password Policies,cn=config
```

Changing the administrator password

About this task

Root users are governed by the root password policy and by default, their passwords never expire. To change a root user password, use the ldappasswordmodify tool.

Steps

Open a text editor and create a text file containing the new password.

Example:

For this example, name the file rootuser.txt.
```
$ echo password > rootuser.txt
```

To change the root user’s password, run ldappasswordmodify.

Example:

$ bin/ldappasswordmodify --port 1389 --bindDN "cn=Directory Manager"\
  --bindPassword secret --newPasswordFile rootuser.txt

Remove the text file.

Example:
```
$ rm rootuser.txt
```

Setting up an administrator group

About this task

The following example shows how to set up a group of administrators that have access rights to the whole PingDirectory server.

The example uses a static group using the GroupOfUniqueNames object class.

Steps

Create an LDIF file with an example administrator group.

Example:

For this example, name the file admin-group.ldif

dn: ou=Groups,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalunit
objectClass: top
ou: Groups

dn: cn=Dir Admins,ou=Groups,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: groupofuniquenames
objectClass: top
uniqueMember: uid=user.0, ou=People, dc=example,dc=com
uniqueMember: uid=user.1, ou=People, dc=example,dc=com
cn: Dir Admins
ou: Groups

To add the entries, use the ldapmodify tool.

Example:

$ bin/ldapmodify --defaultAdd --filename admin-group.ldif

To add the ACI to the root suffix or base DN to provide full access to the PingDirectory server to the new administrator, create another LDIF file.

Example:

For this example, name the file admin-aci.ldif.

dn: dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: aci
aci: (target="ldap:///dc=example,dc=com")
  (targetattr != "aci")
  (version 3.0; acl "allow all Admin group";
    allow(all) groupdn = "ldap:///cn=Dir Admins,ou=Groups,dc=example,dc=com";)

To add the ACI, use the ldapmodify tool.

Example:
```
$ bin/ldapmodify --filename admin-aci.ldif
```
To verify the additions, use the ldapsearch tool.

Example:

In the following example, the first command searches for the entry that contains cn=Dir Admins and returns it if the search is successful. The second command searches for the base DN and returns only those operational attributes, including ACIs, associated with the entry.
```
$ bin/ldapsearch --baseDN dc=example,dc=com "(cn=Dir Admins)"

$ bin/ldapsearch --baseDN dc=example,dc=com --searchScope base \
  "(objectclass=*)" "+"
```
To add specific privileges to each administrator account, use an LDIF file.

Example:

For this example, name the file admin-priv.ldif.

For this example, add the password-reset privilege to the user.0 administrator account from the command line. To add the privilege, use the ldapmodify tool. Repeat the process for the other administrators configured in the administrator group.
```
dn: uid=user.0,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: ds-privilege-name
ds-privilege-name: password-reset

$ bin/ldapmodify --filename admin-priv.ldif
```
Result:
```
Processing MODIFY request for uid=user.0,dc=example,dc=com
MODIFY operation successful for DN uid=user.0,dc=example,dc=com
```
To assign a password policy for the administrator account, use an LDIF file. Save the file as admin-pwd-policy.ldif.

Example:

For example, create an Admin Password Policy, then add the password policy to the account. To apply the password policy to the account, use the ldapmodify tool.
```
dn: uid=user.0,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
add: ds-pwp-password-policy-dn
ds-pwp-password-policy-dn: cn=Admin Password Policy,cn=Password Policies,cn=config

$ bin/ldapmodify --filename admin-pwd-policy.ldif
```