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Configure User Accounts

User accounts provide one way for users to access the router. (Users can access the router without accounts if you configured RADIUS or TACACS+ servers, as described in User Authentication.) For each account, you define the login name for the user and, optionally, information that identifies the user. After you have created an account, the software creates a home directory for the user.

To create user accounts, include the user statement at the [edit system login] hierarchy level:

[edit system]
login {
    user user-name {
        full-name complete-name; 
        uid uid-value; 
        class class-name; 
        authentication {
            (encrypted-password "password" | plain-text-password);
            ssh-rsa "public-key";
            ssh-dsa "public-key";
        }
    }
}

For each user account, you can define the following:

You must ensure that the UID is unique. However, it is possible to assign the same UID to different users. If you do this, the CLI displays a warning when you commit the configuration, then assigns the duplicate UID.

[edit system]
user@host# set root-authentication plain-text-password
New password: type password here
Retype new password: retype password here

For information about how to create plain-text passwords, see Plain-Text Passwords.

For ssh authentication, you can copy the contents of an ssh keys file into the configuration. For information about how to specify filenames, see Specify Filenames and URLs.

To load an ssh key file, use the load-key-file command. This command loads RSA (ssh version 1) and DSA (ssh version 2) public keys. You can also configure a user to use ssh-rsa and ssh-dsa keys.

If you load the ssh keys file, the contents of the file are copied into the configuration immediately after you enter the load-key-file statement. To view the ssh keys entries, use the configuration mode show command. For example:

[edit system]
user@host# set root-authentication load-key-file my-host:.ssh/identity.pub 
.file.19692               |          0 KB |   0.3 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:00 | 100%
[edit system]
user@host# show
root-authentication {
ssh-rsa "1024 35 9727638204084251055468226757249864241630322207404
962528390382038690141584534964170019610608358722961563475784918
273603361276441874265946893207739108344810126831259577226254616
679992783161235004386609158662838224897467326056611921814895398
139655615637862119403276878065381696020274916416373591326939634
4008443 boojum@juniper.net"; # SECRET-DATA
}

An account for the user root is always present in the configuration. You configure the password for root using the root-authentication statement, as described in Configure the Root Password.

Example: Configure User Accounts

Create accounts for four router users, and create an account for the template user "remote." All users use one of the default system login classes.

[edit]
system {
    login {
        user philip {
            full-name "Philip of Macedonia"; 
            uid 1001; 
            class superuser; 
            authentication {
                encrypted-password "$1$poPPeY"; 
            }
        }
        user alexander {
            full-name "Alexander the Great";
            uid 1002;
            class view;
            authentication {
                encrypted-password "$1$14c5.$sBopasdFFdssdfFFdsdfs0";
                ssh-dsa "8924 37 5678 5678@gaugamela.per";
            }
        }
        user darius {
            full-name "Darius King of Persia";
            uid 1003;
            class operator;
            authentication {
                ssh-rsa "1024 37 12341234@ecbatana.per";
            }
        }
        user anonymous {
            class unauthorized;
        }
        user remote {
            full-name "All remote users";
            uid 9999;
            class read-only;
        }
    }
} 

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