Managing Users In Services
Who can use the services from a server??
Who offers the services?
A Server is basically a computer which gives services to the clients. It shares data and services to the computers which are connected with it through various connecting mediums like LAN, WAN etc. These are classified into groups based on the services they offer. for example, Mail servers, Game servers, File servers ,Application servers etc.
Who can access the server?
The computers which are connected with the server via different mediums and the users who have been given acceess to the server. For example, a server is hosted locally in a LAN network, then every computer in the LAN can access it and if it is hosted globallly in the clouds using WAN then everyone in the world can access it unless the client has given access to it and the he/she knows the methods to access it.
Problems when a server is hosted in WAN-
When a server is hosted locally in a LAN atmosphere, a very few people can access the data and services from the server and the server is in the safe zone as per the security of the data is concerned. But when it is hosted in WAN using public ip, the threat to the data and security of the server is increased. An unknown user can steal the important data and can misuse it which is highly dangerous as per the security of a data is concerned.
User Management in servers-
Now here comes the concept of user management, i.e. who can access the services from the server. The server can restrict the users from reaching the services and data if found inappropriate.
For example, consider the printer in the above diagram which includes services like copying, printing, sending the files etc. Now, the different types of users is shown at the left side of the diagram.
- The first one is administrator(admin) who directs the services and who has direct access to the data of the server.
- The second one is a general user who has been given access to the services with a user id and password. If he is able to put it correct then he will be considered as a valid user if not so, his access to the services is denied.
- The third one is unauthorised user who tries to access the services without having access to it. Here the server denies the access and protects itself from getting robbed.
Every server has a user management option with it from where the admin of the server can give access to the user or client and can restrict him/her to user particular services from the server.
The following is the windows user management window -
One more example-
User Access Management — The User Management Server facilitates you to grant/revoke access to applications for users and groups(if an application is hosted on the server). You can allow an user to be the administrator for a particular application.
A Case Study-
Consider yourself as adminstrator of a server hosted in LAN of your office. All of your employees can successfully access it sitting in the office premises. Suddenly COVID-19 pandemic started and all of your employees were forced by the local government to work from home. Now how you can resolve the situation to run your office successfully?
Answer to this question is simple. By making the resources available to employees at their home.
But the server is hosted locally in LAN of your office then how it is possible?
To overcome this situation- 1.You must have to connect your LAN with internet i.e.WAN. 2.You must buy a public IP from your internet provider so that that will be accessible from remote world. 3.To keep your server safe from foreign hackers which may steal your data you must restrict all of them from reaching you.You can add your employees to the server as user and decide their task as per their work as user or adminstrator.
Now only those people can reach your server which you have included as user, rest all are restricted access to the server.
Thank You!!
