🚀 Day 4 of My DevOps Journey : Linux User and Group Management

Posted on July 9, 2025 | By Ritesh Singh

Hello, Hashnode community! 👋 I'm Ritesh, a budding DevOps engineer documenting my learning journey as I dive into Linux and DevOps practices. On Day 4 of my DevOps journal, I focused on Linux User and Group Management—a critical skill for securing systems and enabling team collaboration. In this blog, I’ll share my hands-on experience, practical commands, and tips to help fellow beginners kickstart their DevOps journey. Let’s get started! 🚀

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Why Linux User and Group Management?

As a DevOps enthusiast, I’ve learned that Linux is the backbone of most server infrastructure. Mastering user and group management is essential for:

• Securing servers by controlling access.

• Enabling collaboration through shared group permissions.

• Building a foundation for advanced DevOps tasks like automation and containerization.

This knowledge is a stepping stone for certifications like Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), which I’m eyeing for my DevOps career.

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📘 Day 4: Linux User and Group Management

On Day 4, I explored how to manage users and groups in Linux, practicing commands to create secure, collaborative environments. Here’s what I learned:

👤 Creating and Managing Users

To create a user named ravi with a home directory and password:

sudo adduser ravi
sudo passwd ravi

• adduser: Creates the user, sets up a home directory (/home/ravi), and assigns a default group.

• passwd: Sets a secure password for ravi.

🔁 Switching Users and Verifying Identity

To test the user’s setup:

su - ravi
whoami
id

• su - ravi: Switches to ravi’s environment.

• whoami: Confirms the current user (ravi).

• id: Shows user ID, group ID, and group memberships.

This is great for verifying user accounts and troubleshooting login issues.

🔐 Granting Sudo Access

To give ravi administrative privileges:

sudo usermod -aG sudo ravi

The -aG flag adds ravi to the sudo group without removing existing memberships. Now ravi can run sudo commands securely.

👥 Managing Groups

For team collaboration, I created a devs group and added ravi to it:

sudo groupadd devs
sudo usermod -aG devs ravi
groups ravi

• groupadd devs: Creates a new group.

• usermod -aG devs ravi: Adds ravi to devs.

• groups ravi: Lists ravi’s group memberships.

This setup is perfect for managing permissions for multiple users, like developers sharing project files.

📂 Changing Group Ownership

To assign files or folders to a group:

sudo chgrp devs filename
sudo chgrp -R devs /home/ritesh/shared_folder

The -R flag applies group ownership recursively to directories and their contents.

📁 Setting Up a Shared Folder

To create a team-accessible folder with group inheritance:

sudo mkdir /home/ritesh/shared_folder
sudo chgrp devs /home/ritesh/shared_folder
sudo chmod 770 /home/ritesh/shared_folder
sudo chmod g+s /home/ritesh/shared_folder

• 770: Grants read/write/execute access to the owner and devs group; others have no access.

• g+s (setgid): Ensures new files in the folder inherit the devs group.

This setup is ideal for collaborative projects, ensuring consistent permissions.

✅ Key Takeaways

• User Creation: Use adduser for user setup and passwd for passwords.

• Group Management: groupadd and usermod -aG streamline team permissions.

• Sudo Access: Grant admin rights securely with sudo group.

• Permissions: chgrp and chmod control access; g+s ensures group inheritance.

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💡 Tips for DevOps Beginners

1. Master Linux Basics: User and group management is foundational for server administration and DevOps roles.

2. Practice Hands-On: Set up a local Linux environment (e.g., Ubuntu VM) to run these commands and build confidence.

3. Explore Further: Try commands like userdel or groupdel to manage cleanup, or experiment with advanced permissions (e.g., ACLs).

4. Document Your Journey: Keep a journal (like my GitHub repo) to track progress.

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🚀 What’s Next?

• DevOps Skills: Start learning Docker commands to prepare for containerization certifications like Docker Certified Associate.

• Career Goals: Build toward certifications like Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), leveraging my Linux skills.

Follow my journey on LinkedIn and GitHub. Drop a comment below—how are you learning Linux or DevOps? Let’s connect! 😊

#DevOps #Linux #UserManagement #GroupManagement