Are root and administrator actually the same account on a filer?

Applies to

Data ONTAP 7 and earlier

Answer

The root and administrator accounts are actually distinct accounts which can be treated as one account if certain conditions are in place.

The following is an output of the useradmin user list command on a system having only the root account and the administrator account:

toaster> useradmin user list

Name: root
Info: Default system administrator
Rid: 0
Groups:

Name: administrator
Info: Built-in account for administering the filer
Rid: 500
Groups: Administrators

Explanation:

Notice that the Rid's are different. The root account is actually the more powerful account. The administrator account is there to assist users operating in a Microsoft environment.

Additional Information

• To create the conditions to have the Administrator account and root account to be treated as one account, follow the step:
  1. To equate Windows Domain\Administrator privileges to UNIX root in a multi-protocol environment, enter the following on the filer:

filer> options wafl.nt_admin_priv_map_to_root on

• To map privileges, refer to usermap.cfg /etc/usermap.cfg file to include this line:

DOMAIN\Administrator == root