Group profiles

Group profiles define authority for a group of users.

You can use a group profile to perform the following tasks:

• Define authority for a group of users, rather than giving authority to each user individually.

• Own objects on the system.

• Use a group profile as a pattern when creating individual user profiles by using the copy profile function.

A group profile is a special type of user profile and can own objects on the system. Typically, you create a group profile for a set of users with similar system access and usage needs. For example, you might create a group profile for a set of users who need to use the same applications in the same way.

You can also use a group profile as a pattern when you create individual user profiles, either by using the copy-profile function or by using the security policies menu to edit user authorities in iSeries™ Navigator.

A group profile servers two purposes on the system:

• Security tool: A group profile provides a simple way to organize who can use certain objects on your system (object authorities). You can define object authorities for an entire group rather than for each individual member of the group.

• Customization tool: You can use a group profile as a pattern for creating individual user profiles. Most people who are part of the same group have the same customizing needs, such as the initial menu and the default printer. You can define these in the group profile and copy them to the individual user profiles.

You can use group profiles to make it easier to maintain a simple, consistent scheme for both security and customization.

For more information on working with group profiles, see the following sections in the iSeries Security Reference:

• "Planning Group Profiles", which discusses using group authority

• "Group Ownership of Objects", which discusses what objects should be owned by group profiles.

• "Primary Group for an Object", which discusses using primary group and primary group authority for an object

• "Copying User Profiles", which describes how to copy a group profile to create an individual user profile.

Parent topic:

Related concepts
Planning group profiles Creating a group profile