About maintaining user information

Reason for maintaining user information

User information is maintained by Data ONTAP on the filer to identify users. Identification of users is necessary to determine if users are allowed to access files using file access protocols, such as NFS, CIFS, and FTP.

Ways to maintain user information

User information can be maintained in one or both of the following ways:

In configuration files in the /etc directory on filer's default volume
For information about configuration files, see Using configuration files to maintain user information.
On a Network Information Service (NIS) server
For information about maintaining user information on an NIS server, see Using NIS to maintain user information.

Search order for user information

If you use both the configuration files and the NIS server, the order in which the files and the NIS server are used is determined by the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. For detailed information about this file, see Changing the user name search order.