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Role Accounts

A role account is a user account shared with one or more users as members, such that all group members share the account equally via the use of sudo, typically for the unified use of a project. Role accounts must have a name that reflects their project association or function.

Requesting a new role account

All requests for a new role account must be submitted as helpdesk tickets. Send email to rdhpcs.aim.help@noaa.gov with the subject line: Role account request. Include:

  1. the proposed account name and generic description of purpose.

  2. an active project where role account is a member.

  3. the PI for the role account. Reference existing role accounts as appropriate.

Requesting changes to a role account

All changes to a role account must be submitted via the helpdesk. Send email to rdhpcs.aim.help@noaa.gov with the subject line: Role account changes - Role.Account.Name.Here. All changes require PI approval.

Accessing a role account

If you are a member of a role account, you can access the account by running the command sudo su - <ROLE_ACCOUNT>. Use sudo -l to list the access you have.

You will authenticate with your YubiKey to gain access. For example:

jsmith# sudo su - role.user
Access is via First.Last username only.
bash-4.1$ whoami
role.user

X Applications With role accounts

Note

X applications with role accounts are not supported on Pan or Gaea.

Before continuing, make sure you can use X applications with your regular user account.

If you are planning to use X applications with role accounts, you should use the xsudo utility to switch to the role account instead of using the sudo command directly. You need to explicitly set the DISPLAY environment variable after doing the xsudo to the role account. For example, if you want to use role.rap-chem role account and would like the ability to use X applications:

  1. Note the DISPLAY environment variable in your current session before doing the xsudo to the role account:

$ echo $DISPLAY

  1. Use the xsudo command to switch to the role account:

$ xsudo role.rap-chem

  1. Set the DISPLAY environment variable to the value you obtained above just before doing xsudo.

    $ export DISPLAY=localhost:14.0

    $ setenv DISPLAY localhost:14.0

This will enable your X applications.

Using CRON or SCRON

As role accounts are shared by multiple users in a project, the project members need a way to know which member is responsible for which section of the cron entries. The person responsible for the section of a cron or scron entry of a role account should use the following guidelines:

At the beginning of the section:

  • Add a comment about the who is adding these cron entries

  • Add a comment about when this entry was added

  • Add a comment about an end date if applicable

  • Add other comments as needed to document the purpose

  • Add a MAILTO=First.Last@noaa.gov at the beginning of the section

  • Add a MAILTO= at the end of the section so that whoever is responsible for the next section sets their own MAILTO filed.

Note

Without the MAILTO directive, any errors/logs from the cron or scron commands end up getting lost and one may never know there was a problem/failure!