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Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

Managing Guest Users

Created August 15, 2017 by Hanz Makmur

 

Authorized faculty/staff can create a group and sponsor users access to CS computer system without needing to go through LCSR systems staff.  This document shows you how to manage your guest users in a group. If you want a group just to share files, the same tool can be used, but this page is specifically about groups that authorize guest users.

How to add guests to Computer Science Systems
  • If they do not already have a University NetID, they must get one. CS systems use the NetID for login, although with a separate CS password. Here’s a description of the system for doing that: Rutgers Guest Request System. As you’ll see on that page, there is a link for the guest to make the request, filling in necessary information, and a second one for you to approve the request. For guests of the department, the department office will often do this process for you.
  • Once they have a Netid, you should go to the CS Account Management Page and add them to a login group. This page describes how to do that, below. A login group is a group of users that you have authorized to login to a particular set of systems. The Group and Guest Management tool on the CS Account Management Page will let you create a login group and add users to it. When you add a guest user to your group, their information is automatically copied from the University directory to ours, and their NetID is added to the Computer Science System.
  • Your guest will then go to the same CS Account Management Page. If you want them to use one of the LCSR systems, e.g. the Research or Ilab clusters, you should set your login group to authorize accounts on those clusters. Then tell your guest to use the link Activate an account on a Computer Science system and activate on the cluster you authorized. The Activation process will ask them to create a Computer Science password if they don’t already have one.
  • If you don’t want them to use any of the LCSR systems, but are simply putting them into our system so they can use one of your lab systems, then tell them to go to the CS Account Management Page and choose Set or reset your Computer Science password.
Annual Review of Guests

Please note to simplify the cleanup process, there is a yearly review requirement where group owner is required to review group membership. At this time,

  1. the sponsor is sent an email message asking for a yearly review.
  2. If there is no response for 2 weeks, a second message is sent.
  3. After 2 more weeks with no response, a third message is sent and the group is suspended.
  4. Once suspended, group members will get a warning email that his/her account on the cluster specified in the group will be closed within 30 days. In addition, on a specialized system, members will no longer able to login.
Using the Group Management Tool

To start managing your users and groups simply go to https://services.cs.rutgers.edu/accounts/groups/login. You need to login with your NetID and CS Password.

Depending on what groups you already own, once login, you may be presented with a list of groups own by you as shown below.

Different Types of Groups

As shown above, there are 5 different types of groups.

  1.  conference is loginable group with no cluster set. Members of this group can’t not login to any cluster until cluster is specified.
  2.  cs211-fall17 is loginable group in yearly review period. If ignored, this group will be suspended as shown on suspended group below.
  3. cs211-summer17 is a suspended loginable group needing review. It means member of this group has 30 days before his/her account is closed and one special system, member of the groups can no longer login. This group is suspended because owner of this group did not respond to yearly review email.
  4. login-ilab-gpu is loginable group. Members of this group can login to cluster assigned in the group.
  5. login-ilab-gpu is an active loginable group. This is a normal loginable group should be.
  6. projectA is a filesharing group. Filesharing group allows you to share files or directory to  group.  See  Making a Directory You can Share With Members of your Project for more details.

Making changes or reviewing your group

To review or make changes to your existing group, click on the name of the group. Once clicked, you will see familar screen as the one you use to create the group. Make the changes you need and click on the submit button.

Adding a group.

If you have no existing group or would like to create a new group, go to Add Group section, add a new group.

Adding a loginable group

If you want a group that can be used to limit access to your group machines, create a loginable group by checking [x] Login  when adding a group in managing your users and groups page. Once this group is created, please notify help@cs to use this loginable group to limit  your machines to your groups.

For more introduction information, please refers to your guests the following info:

– Getting Started with Technical Resource at Department of Computer Science
– Introduction to Computer Science Resources

As always, please direct Questions and Problems to help@cs.rutgers.edu.