new user to suse linux

[juliewal]

I am setting up a new linux system for many users and would like to know how to disable login whilst backup is being run.

Any help much apreciated

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

For simply disabling non-root logins, you could create a nologin file in /etc:

touch /etc/nologin

Only root users can login after that. Once you are done with your backup, you can remove the file to put things back the way they were:

rm /etc/nologin

[juliewal]

Thank you love a quick response, I am running a suse linux box and cannot log in remotely as root. I would need to exempt my normal login account from the nologin file. Any ideas:

[oz]

You'd need to create a 2nd file in /etc called nologin.allow:

vim /etc/nologin.allow

...then add the users you want to be able to login to the file.

username1
username2
username3

Save the file and I think it should work.

[juliewal]

Hi Ozar

Thank you, did as suggested, but could not login as one of the users in the /etc/nologin.allow file until the /etc/nologin file was removed.

Julie

[oz]

Sorry, I'm not sure why it's not working. I just tried it here and it's not working for me, either. I'll do some digging around and try to figure it out.

In the interim, maybe someone else will know why it's not working, or perhaps have a better solution that you can try out.

Edit: While waiting for any ideas to roll in, you might also check your backup utility for options to disable user logins because some tools come with that option built in.

[serverlinux]

Hi, you have to do the following :

Let us know which services you want to disable users to login, if ssh, or terminal.. if it is ssh then you have to edit /etc/pam.d/sshd
Add the following line:

account required pam_nologin.so

And then you do:
touch /etc/nologin

This would disable users, except root from logging in

For more examles see here:
Linux Server Security Secrets and Administration: Disable users from loggin into the server, excep the administrator

[juliewal]

Thank you, however I work remotely and you cannot log in as root remotely, so need to be able to exempt some users from the login.

[serverlinux]

Well, that is not a problem, you have to specify something like this in /etc/security/time.conf


login;*;!youruser;!Al1500-1700

[juliewal]

Hi Walter,

Thank you for your response, I need to be able to turn it on and off within a shell as backup is run at various times during the night, depending on whether nightshift etc is running.