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Obsolete Releases => SME Server 7.x => Topic started by: mmccarn on July 15, 2006, 05:42:41 PM
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Operation status report
Error: the account "..." can't be created because there is already a system account of that name.
What causes this error?
You will get this error (rather than an error saying the user, group, or ibay already exists) if:
- You try to create [new user] [new group] or [new ibay] using server-manager
- there is an existing entry in /etc/passwd or /etc/group for [new user] [new group] or [new ibay]
- # db accounts gettype [new user] (or [new group] or [new ibay]) does not return "user" "group" or "ibay"
(be sure to replace [new user] [new group] or [new ibay] with the the actual user, group or ibay account name that you are working on)
What is a "system account"?
SME creates many system accounts when installed. These accounts are required for the proper operation of the various packages that constitute "SME Server 7.0 Final" as they are configured by default. These accounts will return "service", "system", or nothing from "db accounts gettype...".
Any account created manually using "useradd" will be a "system account" until you set the account type in the accounts database (see below).
Many non-SME-specific packages use "useradd" and "groupadd" to create user and group accounts - the resulting accounts will be "system accounts" as far as server-manager is concerned.
What "system accounts" exist in SME 7.0 Final by default?
The default SME system accounts all have ID numbers below 3000. Here is a list of the accounts on a reasonably virgin SME 7.0 system with ID numbers below 3000:
default system accounts in /etc/group:
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root bin daemon sys adm tty disk lp mem kmem wheel mail news uucp man floppy games slocate utmp squid mysql gopher rpm ntp dip xfs apache ftp dns lock ldap nut haldaemon vcsa sshd pcap dbus radiusd dovecot nobody users admin www public nofiles qmail clamav dnscache dnslog stunnel qpsmtpd shared imaplog smelog cvmlog spamd smelastsys
default system accounts in /etc/passwd:
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root bin daemon adm lp mail news uucp operator games gopher ftp squid mysql rpm ntp xfs apache dns ldap nut haldaemon vcsa sshd pcap dbus radiusd dovecot nobody admin www public alias qmaild qmaill qmailp qmailq qmailr qmails clamav dnscache dnslog stunnel qpsmtpd imaplog smelog cvmlog spamd smelastsys
Here is a program that will list all of the accounts in /etc/passwd and in /etc/group, showing the account type from the accounts db and the User/Group ID:
# awk -F: '{ acct_type= ""; cmd= "db accounts gettype " $1; cmd | getline acct_type ; close (cmd) ; printf "%12s %8s %10s %5s\n", FILENAME ":",acct_type ,$1, $3 } ' /etc/passwd /etc/group
Print a sorted list of records in /etc/group with IDs below 3000:
# awk -F: ' { if ($3 < 3000) print $1, $3 } ' /etc/group| sort -g -k 2
Print a sorted list of records in /etc/passwd with IDs below 3000:
# awk -F: '{ if ($3 < 3000) print $1, $3 } ' /etc/passwd| sort -g -k 2
How do I set or change the account type for a "system account"?
You can "expose" a system account to server-manager by issuing the following command to change the account "type" in the accounts database:
# db accounts set [account] user
(replace [account] with the specific system account name you wish to expose)
How can I get email at "news@..." , "mail@...", etc?
See the comment from JonB below - use the pseudonym panel!
What you shouldn't do:
First expose the account to server-manager by changing the "account type" (see above).
Once you have done this, you can modify the specified account in server-manager and configure it to forward messages to another account, mailing list, or email address.
Warnings:
- The default SME system accounts are highly sensitive; this is why they are not exposed in server-manager by default.
- Creating a password for any system account could significantly reduce the security of your server!
- Avoid changing system accounts if at all possible.
- If you must modify or expose a system account, make as few changes as possible!
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I guess the above is something for the FAQ or maybe even the (developer) documentation.
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How can I get email at "news@..." , "mail@...", etc?
First expose the account to server-manager by changing the "account type" (see above).
Once you have done this, you can modify the specified account in server-manager and configure it to forward messages to another account, mailing list, or email address.
No don't do this.
This can be done in the Pseudonyms panel of the server-manager.
e.g you create a pseudonym 'mail@domain.com' or 'mail@virtual-domain.com' and point it at the user you want to get the emails.
Note that the pseudonym name must be the full email address.
Jon
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Hi Guys,
I hope this is an OK place for this issue. I have been trying to add a pseudonym called "weeden" and attach it to an existing account "weedenj". Each time I get the error - Error occurred while creating pseudonym in database.
As I seemed to be hitting a brick wall, I then tried to create a user account called weeden and got - Error: the account "weeden" can't be created because there is already a system account of that name.
On advice from this thread, I ran the command to list all accounts and found that there is indeed an account (not showing in Server Manager) called weeden. it shows as:
/etc/passwd: weeden 5023
/etc/group: weeden 5023
ie. no type.
My question, how can I create the pseudonym "weeden"?
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Can you create the pseudonym if you include the entire email address when doing so, as suggested by JonB?
If not, do you know when the "weeden" account was created? This doesn't look like any normal SME account name to me, so I suspect you've created it manually at some point yourself - if so, it should be safe to change the account type to 'User' using the commands shown above - then it would appear in server-manager...
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I got the similar problem but it seems looking for different solution.
first i created an account call test.
then i deleted it.
then i recreated it and i got this error (i did reboot still got the same error)
Operation status report
Error: the account "test" can't be created because there is already a user-deleted account of that name.
i dig thru the passwd file but i cannot find an account called test there.
any idea, please help!
aux
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I got the similar problem but it seems looking for different solution.
first i created an account call test.
then i deleted it.
then i recreated it and i got this error (i did reboot still got the same error)
Operation status report
Error: the account "test" can't be created because there is already a user-deleted account of that name.
What you are seeing is the result of the deletion being incomplete. The usual cause of that is a bug, either in the base SME server code, or in a contrib. In either case, you should report the problem, in detail, via the bug tracker. You will be asked to attach the /var/log/messages.xxx file from the time of the failed deletion.
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I have a similar problem. I'm using ver 7.3. I deleted a user account and want to create a pseudonym using the deleted account name. I got the message on the Server Manager:
"Error occurred while creating pseudonym."
In spite of this, the Server Manager lists the new pseudonym, but mails sent to the address do not arrive in the expected mailbox. Nor are they reported as undelivered.
I went through the process of checking that the deleted account name was not still listed in /home/e-smith/db/accounts, /etc/group, /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow. It was only listed in /home/e-smith/db/accounts as a pseudonym.
I copied this from the log file:
Dec 17 11:37:54 smeserver esmith::event[9506]: generic_template_expand=action|Event|pseudonym-create|Action|generic_template_expand|Start|1229506671 814075|End|1229506674 810539|Elapsed|2.996464
Dec 17 11:37:54 smeserver esmith::event[9506]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/pseudonym-create/S55email-assign
Dec 17 11:37:54 smeserver esmith::event[9506]: qmail-newu: fatal: bad format in users/assign
Dec 17 11:37:54 smeserver esmith::event[9506]: S55email-assign=action|Event|pseudonym-create|Action|S55email-assign|Start|1229506674 811908|End|1229506674 819447|Elapsed|0.007539|Status|28416
Dec 17 11:37:54 smeserver esmith::event[9506]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/actions/adjust-services
Any suggestions appreciated!
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Any suggestions appreciated!
Do as Charlie stated in the post before yours:
The usual cause of that is a bug, either in the base SME server code, or in a contrib. In either case, you should report the problem, in detail, via the bug tracker. You will be asked to attach the /var/log/messages.xxx file from the time of the failed deletion.
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Bug #4862 registered for this.