File Management

File Management Paper

John Tucker

March 17, 2015

POS/355

Corey Johnson

File Management

Consider a system that supports 5,000 users. Suppose you want to allow 4,990 of those users to be able to access one file. How would you specify this protection scheme in UNIX®?

There are multiple ways that you can achieve this protection scheme. The first way that you would be able to do it is to go inside the operating system and create an access control list. This access control list will list on the 4,990 members that you want to have access the specific file. You can also put the 4,990 users that you want to be able to access the file in one group by themselves. Unfortunately this method might not always be available to you.

In order for us to be able to create this protection scheme we will have to use a system that allows us to have 5,000 users using it at once. We will use an enterprise server since this type of server is specifically for use in environments with many different users. Unlike the server you probably have for your home computer which is only built to serve your households needs. We will be working inside of the UNIX system which has different options as far as protection schemes go. This specific operating system handles its files and directories the same way. All of the directories are part of sub directories. Thee files that are in these directories are only able to be accessed by users who are associated with that specific group.

When we take a look at the access control list some users have a R by their name which means that they are able to only read the file that they are associated with. Some users with have a W which means that they will be able to actually write and make changes to the file. Some users will have a X which means that they can execute the file. In order to add users to a group a manager, or the company's system administrator would have to go in and assign individual users to each group. Also the...