Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

Red Hat Setup Agent 63After you have entered a valid username and password combination or created a newlogin, information for the system profile is requested (see Figure 2.8). The default systemname is the fully qualified hostname, but it can be changed to a more descriptive namesuch as Primary Backup System or Web Server #3. By default, hardware and software informationis also saved in the system’s Red Hat Network profile. If you choose not to includethe package list as part of the RHN profile, Red Hat Network will not be able to notify youwhen updates are available for the system because it doesn’t know what packages arealready installed. The next two Setup Agent screens provide a summary of your RHNsubscription and inform you that an icon will appear on the graphical desktop panelwhen updates are available.2FIGURE 2.8Creating an RHN System ProfileWhen installing the operating system, you set up a root password for the administrativeaccount. You should not log in as the root user for normal day-to-day activities. The rootaccount should only be used to perform administrative tasks because certain files are onlyaccessible by the root user. This is for security and also to protect the files from accidentallybeing deleted, modified, moved, or damaged. The Create User screen in Figure 2.9allows you to create a non-root user account for everyday use. To add additional userslater, select the System menu from the top panel of the desktop and selectAdministration, Users and Groups or execute the system-config-users command. Ifyour network uses network authentication such as Kerberos or NIS instead, click UseNetwork Login. For more information on network authentication, refer to Chapter 12,“Identity Management.”