Chapter 14. Managing user groups in IdM CLI This chapter introduces user groups management using the IdM CLI. A user group is a set of users with common privileges, password policies, and other characteristics. A user group in Identity Management (IdM) can include: IdM users other IdM user groups external users, which are users that exist outside of IdM 14.1. The different group types in IdM IdM supports the following types of groups: POSIX groups (the default) POSIX groups support Linux POSIX attributes for their members. Note that groups that interact with Active Directory cannot use POSIX attributes. POSIX attributes identify users as separate entities. Examples of POSIX attributes relevant to users include uidNumber , a user number (UID), and gidNumber , a group number (GID). Non-POSIX groups Non-POSIX groups do not support POSIX attributes. For example, these groups do not have a GID defined. All members of this type of group must belong to the IdM domain. External groups Use external groups to add group members that exist in an identity store outside of the IdM domain, such as: A local system An Active Directory domain A directory service External groups do not support POSIX attributes. For example, these groups do not have a GID defined. Table 14.1. User groups created by default Group name Default group members ipausers All IdM users admins Users with administrative privileges, including the default admin user editors This is a legacy group that no longer has any special privileges trust admins Users with privileges to manage the Active Directory trusts When you add a user to a user group, the user gains the privileges and policies associated with the group. For example, to grant administrative privileges to a user, add the user to the admins group. Warning Do not delete the admins group. As admins is a pre-defined group required by IdM, this operation causes problems with certain commands. In addition, IdM creates user private groups by default whenever a new user is created in IdM. For more information about private groups, see Adding users without a private group . 14.2. Direct and indirect group members User group attributes in IdM apply to both direct and indirect members: when group B is a member of group A, all users in group B are considered indirect members of group A. For example, in the following diagram: User 1 and User 2 are direct members of group A. User 3, User 4, and User 5 are indirect members of group A. Figure 14.1. Direct and Indirect Group Membership If you set a password policy for user group A, the policy also applies to all users in user group B. 14.3. Adding a user group using IdM CLI Follow this procedure to add a user group using the IdM CLI. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . Procedure Add a user group by using the ipa group-add group_name command. For example, to create group_a: By default, ipa group-add adds a POSIX user group. To specify a different group type, add options to ipa group-add : --nonposix to create a non-POSIX group --external to create an external group For details on group types, see The different group types in IdM . You can specify a custom GID when adding a user group by using the --gid= custom_GID option. If you do this, be careful to avoid ID conflicts. If you do not specify a custom GID, IdM automatically assigns a GID from the available ID range. 14.4. Searching for user groups using IdM CLI Follow this procedure to search for existing user groups using the IdM CLI. Procedure Display all user groups by using the ipa group-find command. To specify a group type, add options to ipa group-find : Display all POSIX groups using the ipa group-find --posix command. Display all non-POSIX groups using the ipa group-find --nonposix command. Display all external groups using the ipa group-find --external command. For more information about different group types, see The different group types in IdM . 14.5. Deleting a user group using IdM CLI Follow this procedure to delete a user group using IdM CLI. Note that deleting a group does not delete the group members from IdM. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . Procedure Delete a user group by using the ipa group-del group_name command. For example, to delete group_a: 14.6. Adding a member to a user group using IdM CLI You can add both users and user groups as members of a user group. For more information, see The different group types in IdM and Direct and indirect group members . Follow this procedure to add a member to a user group by using the IdM CLI. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . Procedure Add a member to a user group by using the ipa group-add-member command. Specify the type of member using these options: --users adds an IdM user --external adds a user that exists outside the IdM domain, in the format of DOMAIN\user_name or user_name@domain --groups adds an IdM user group For example, to add group_b as a member of group_a: Members of group_b are now indirect members of group_a. Important When adding a group as a member of another group, do not create recursive groups. For example, if Group A is a member of Group B, do not add Group B as a member of Group A. Recursive groups can cause unpredictable behavior. Note After you add a member to a user group, the update may take some time to spread to all clients in your Identity Management environment. This is because when any given host resolves users, groups and netgroups, the System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) first looks into its cache and performs server lookups only for missing or expired records. 14.7. Adding users without a user private group By default, IdM creates user private groups (UPGs) whenever a new user is created in IdM. UPGs are a specific group type: The UPG has the same name as the newly created user. The user is the only member of the UPG. The UPG cannot contain any other members. The GID of the private group matches the UID of the user. However, it is possible to add users without creating a UPG. 14.7.1. Users without a user private group If a NIS group or another system group already uses the GID that would be assigned to a user private group, it is necessary to avoid creating a UPG. You can do this in two ways: Add a new user without a UPG, without disabling private groups globally. See Adding a user without a user private group when private groups are globally enabled . Disable UPGs globally for all users, then add a new user. See Disabling user private groups globally for all users and Adding a user when user private groups are globally disabled . In both cases, IdM will require specifying a GID when adding new users, otherwise the operation will fail. This is because IdM requires a GID for the new user, but the default user group ipausers is a non-POSIX group and therefore does not have an associated GID. The GID you specify does not have to correspond to an already existing group. Note Specifying the GID does not create a new group. It only sets the GID attribute for the new user, because the attribute is required by IdM. 14.7.2. Adding a user without a user private group when private groups are globally enabled You can add a user without creating a user private group (UPG) even when UPGs are enabled on the system. This requires manually setting a GID for the new user. For details on why this is needed, see Users without a user private group . Procedure To prevent IdM from creating a UPG, add the --noprivate option to the ipa user-add command. Note that for the command to succeed, you must specify a custom GID. For example, to add a new user with GID 10000: 14.7.3. Disabling user private groups globally for all users You can disable user private groups (UPGs) globally. This prevents the creation of UPGs for all new users. Existing users are unaffected by this change. Procedure Obtain administrator privileges: IdM uses the Directory Server Managed Entries Plug-in to manage UPGs. List the instances of the plug-in: To ensure IdM does not create UPGs, disable the plug-in instance responsible for managing user private groups: Note To re-enable the UPG Definition instance later, use the ipa-managed-entries -e "UPG Definition" enable command. Restart Directory Server to load the new configuration. To add a user after UPGs have been disabled, you need to specify a GID. For more information, see Adding a user when user private groups are globally disabled Verification To check if UPGs are globally disabled, use the disable command again: 14.7.4. Adding a user when user private groups are globally disabled When user private groups (UPGs) are disabled globally, IdM does not assign a GID to a new user automatically. To successfully add a user, you must assign a GID manually or by using an automember rule. For details on why this is required, see Users without a user private group . Prerequisities UPGs must be disabled globally for all users. For more information, see Disabling user private groups globally for all users Procedure To make sure adding a new user succeeds when creating UPGs is disabled, choose one of the following: Specify a custom GID when adding a new user. The GID does not have to correspond to an already existing user group. For example, when adding a user from the command line, add the --gid option to the ipa user-add command. Use an automember rule to add the user to an existing group with a GID. 14.8. Adding users or groups as member managers to an IdM user group using the IdM CLI Follow this procedure to add users or groups as member managers to an IdM user group using the IdM CLI. Member managers can add users or groups to IdM user groups but cannot change the attributes of a group. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . You must have the name of the user or group you are adding as member managers and the name of the group you want them to manage. Procedure Add a user as a member manager to an IdM user group by using the ipa group-add-member-manager command. For example, to add the user test as a member manager of group_a : User test can now manage members of group_a . Add a group as a member manager to an IdM user group by using the ipa group-add-member-manager command. For example, to add the group group_admins as a member manager of group_a : Group group_admins can now manage members of group_a . Note After you add a member manager to a user group, the update may take some time to spread to all clients in your Identity Management environment. Verification Using the ipa group-show command to verify the user and group were added as member managers. Additional resources See ipa group-add-member-manager --help for more details. 14.9. Viewing group members using IdM CLI Follow this procedure to view members of a group using IdM CLI. You can view both direct and indirect group members. For more information, see Direct and indirect group members . Procedure: To list members of a group, use the ipa group-show group_name command. For example: Note The list of indirect members does not include external users from trusted Active Directory domains. The Active Directory trust user objects are not visible in the Identity Management interface because they do not exist as LDAP objects within Identity Management. 14.10. Removing a member from a user group using IdM CLI Follow this procedure to remove a member from a user group using IdM CLI. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . Procedure Optional: Use the ipa group-show command to confirm that the group includes the member you want to remove. Remove a member from a user group by using the ipa group-remove-member command. Specify members to remove using these options: --users removes an IdM user --external removes a user that exists outside the IdM domain, in the format of DOMAIN\user_name or user_name@domain --groups removes an IdM user group For example, to remove user1 , user2 , and group1 from a group called group_name : 14.11. Removing users or groups as member managers from an IdM user group using the IdM CLI Follow this procedure to remove users or groups as member managers from an IdM user group using the IdM CLI. Member managers can remove users or groups from IdM user groups but cannot change the attributes of a group. Prerequisites You must be logged in as the administrator. For details, see Using kinit to log in to IdM manually . You must have the name of the existing member manager user or group you are removing and the name of the group they are managing. Procedure Remove a user as a member manager of an IdM user group by using the ipa group-remove-member-manager command. For example, to remove the user test as a member manager of group_a : User test can no longer manage members of group_a . Remove a group as a member manager of an IdM user group by using the ipa group-remove-member-manager command. For example, to remove the group group_admins as a member manager of group_a : Group group_admins can no longer manage members of group_a . Note After you remove a member manager from a user group, the update may take some time to spread to all clients in your Identity Management environment. Verification Using the ipa group-show command to verify the user and group were removed as member managers. Additional resources See ipa group-remove-member-manager --help for more details. 14.12. Enabling group merging for local and remote groups in IdM Groups are either centrally managed, provided by a domain such as Identity Management (IdM) or Active Directory (AD), or they are managed on a local system in the etc/group file. In most cases, users rely on a centrally managed store. However, in some cases software still relies on membership in known groups for managing access control. If you want to manage groups from a domain controller and from the local etc/group file, you can enable group merging. You can configure your nsswitch.conf file to check both the local files and the remote service. If a group appears in both, the list of member users is combined and returned in a single response. The steps below describe how to enable group merging for a user, idmuser . Procedure Add [SUCCESS=merge] to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file: Add the idmuser to IdM: Verify the GID of the local audio group. Add the group audio to IdM: Note The GID you define when adding the audio group to IdM must be the same as the GID of the local audio group. Add idmuser user to the IdM audio group: Verification Log in as the idmuser . Verify the idmuser has the local group in their session: 14.13. Using Ansible to give a user ID override access to the local sound card on an IdM client You can use the ansible-freeipa group and idoverrideuser modules to make Identity Management (IdM) or Active Directory (AD) users members of the local audio group on an IdM client. This grants the IdM or AD users privileged access to the sound card on the host. The procedure uses the example of the Default Trust View ID view to which the aduser@addomain.com ID override is added in the first playbook task. In the playbook task, an audio group is created in IdM with the GID of 63, which corresponds to the GID of local audio groups on RHEL hosts. At the same time, the aduser@addomain.com ID override is added to the IdM audio group as a member. Prerequisites You have root access to the IdM client on which you want to perform the first part of the procedure. In the example, this is client.idm.example.com . You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements: You are using Ansible version 2.13 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller. You are using RHEL 8.10 or later. The example assumes that in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server. The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password . The AD forest is in trust with IdM. In the example, the name of the AD domain is addomain.com and the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the AD user whose presence in the local audio group is being ensured is aduser@addomain.com . The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica. Procedure On client.idm.example.com , add [SUCCESS=merge] to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file: Identify the GID of the local audio group: On your Ansible control node, create an add-aduser-to-audio-group.yml playbook with a task to add the aduser@addomain.com user override to the Default Trust View: Use another playbook task in the same playbook to add the group audio to IdM with the GID of 63. Add the aduser idoverrideuser to the group: Save the file. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file: Verification Log in to the IdM client as the AD user: Verify the group membership of the AD user: Additional resources The idoverrideuser and ipagroup ansible-freeipa upstream documentation Enabling group merging for local and remote groups in IdM

Commands:
ipa group-add group_a --------------------- Added group "group_a" --------------------- Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009
ipa group-del group_a -------------------------- Deleted group "group_a" --------------------------
ipa group-add-member group_a --groups=group_b Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Member users: user_a Member groups: group_b Indirect Member users: user_b ------------------------- Number of members added 1 -------------------------
ipa user-add jsmith --first=John --last=Smith --noprivate --gid 10000
kinit admin
ipa-managed-entries --list
ipa-managed-entries -e "UPG Definition" disable Disabling Plugin
sudo systemctl restart dirsrv.target
ipa-managed-entries -e "UPG Definition" disable Plugin already disabled
ipa group-add-member-manager group_a --users=test Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Membership managed by users: test ------------------------- Number of members added 1 -------------------------
ipa group-add-member-manager group_a --groups=group_admins Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Membership managed by groups: group_admins Membership managed by users: test ------------------------- Number of members added 1 -------------------------
ipa group-show group_a Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Membership managed by groups: group_admins Membership managed by users: test
ipa group-show group_a Member users: user_a Member groups: group_b Indirect Member users: user_b
ipa group-remove-member group_name --users= user1 --users= user2 --groups= group1
ipa group-remove-member-manager group_a --users=test Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Membership managed by groups: group_admins --------------------------- Number of members removed 1 ---------------------------
ipa group-remove-member-manager group_a --groups=group_admins Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 --------------------------- Number of members removed 1 ---------------------------
ipa group-show group_a Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009
Allow initgroups to default to the setting for group. initgroups: sss [SUCCESS=merge] files
ipa user-add idmuser First name: idm Last name: user --------------------- Added user "idmuser" --------------------- User login: idmuser First name: idm Last name: user Full name: idm user Display name: idm user Initials: tu Home directory: /home/idmuser GECOS: idm user Login shell: /bin/sh Principal name: idmuser@IPA.TEST Principal alias: idmuser@IPA.TEST Email address: idmuser@ipa.test UID: 19000024 GID: 19000024 Password: False Member of groups: ipausers Kerberos keys available: False
getent group audio --------------------- audio:x:63
ipa group-add audio --gid 63 ------------------- Added group "audio" ------------------- Group name: audio GID: 63
ipa group-add-member audio --users= idmuser Group name: audio GID: 63 Member users: idmuser ------------------------- Number of members added 1 -------------------------
id idmuser uid=1867800003(idmuser) gid=1867800003(idmuser) groups=1867800003(idmuser),63(audio),10(wheel)
Allow initgroups to default to the setting for group. initgroups: sss [SUCCESS=merge] files
getent group audio --------------------- audio:x:63
--- - name: Playbook to manage idoverrideuser hosts: ipaserver become: false tasks: - name: Add aduser@addomain.com user to the Default Trust View ipaidoverrideuser: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" idview: "Default Trust View" anchor: aduser@addomain.com
- name: Add the audio group with the aduser member and GID of 63 ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: audio idoverrideuser: - aduser@addomain.com gidnumber: 63
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i inventory add-aduser-to-audio-group.yml
ssh aduser@addomain.com@client.idm.example.com
id aduser@addomain.com uid=702801456(aduser@addomain.com) gid=63(audio) groups=63(audio)