Managing User Login Accounts
Page 8-11

Managing User Login Accounts

Prior to software release 4.4, the switch provided security in the form of privilege control for
individual login accounts by allocating each user accounts READ or WRITE privileges. Soft-
ware release 4.4 contains a partition management feature that enhances the privilege capabil-
ity with an authorization scheme based on the functional capacity assigned to each user.
The purpose of partition management is to provide a mechanism in the switch operating
system for system administrators to control access while maintaining enough flexibility to use
the switch’s full range of services. This is normally done for security reasons. System adminis-
trators can partition access to the switch by restricting a user’s ability to perform certain switch
commands or to use certain command groups.
♦ Terminology Notes♦
A user account refers to the user’s ability to log onto
the switch and perform certain functions. From the
user’s perspective, it consists of the login name and a
password.
A privilege refers to the user’s ability or permission from
the system administrator to execute a command.

Partition Management Requirements

Partition management is available only for user login accounts that have no permission to use
the UI command mode. Where a user account has permission to use the UI mode, partition
management is effectively destroyed for that user account. To maintain partition management
capability for a user account, that account must be restricted to using the CLI mode only.
Refer to ‘‘Assigning Account Privileges Using the UI Command Mode’’ on page 8-16 or
‘‘Assigning Account Privileges Using the CLI Command Mode’’ on page 8-13 for information
on restricting use UI commands.
♦ Note♦
Not all UI commands have CLI equivalents. Also, not all
CLI commands support partition management. For
detailed information, refer to the UI to CLI Cross Refer-
ence Tables in Chapter 4 of this manual.