Service users
There are three types of
Helix Server
users: standard
users, operator
users, and
service
users. A standard
user is a traditional
user of
Helix Server, an
operator
user is intended for human or automated system
administrators, and a service
user is used for
server-to-server authentication, as part of the replication process.
Service users are useful for remote depots in single-server environments, but are required for multi-server and distributed environments.
Create a service
user for each master, replica, or proxy
server that you control. Doing so greatly simplifies the task of
interpreting your server logs. Service users can also help you improve
security, by requiring that your edge servers and other replicas have
valid login tickets before they can communicate with the master or commit
server. Service users do not consume
Helix Server
licenses.
Read the "Service users" topic in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide: Fundamentals.
Tickets and timeouts for service users
A newly-created service user that is not a member of any groups is
subject to the default ticket timeout of 12 hours. To avoid issues that
arise when a service user’s ticket ceases to be valid, create a group for
your service users that features an extremely long timeout, or to
unlimited
. On the master server, issue the following
command:
p4 group service_users
Add service1
to the list of Users:
in the
group, and set the Timeout:
and
PasswordTimeout:
values to a large value or to
unlimited
.
Group: service_users Timeout: unlimited PasswordTimeout: unlimited Subgroups: Owners: Users: service1
Service users must have a ticket created with the p4
login
for replication to work.
Permissions for service users
On the master server, use p4 protect
to grant the
service user super
permission. Service users are tightly
restricted in the commands they can run, so granting them
super
permission is safe.