Unable to add user using useradd

Question

Attempting to add a (non-existant) user to my CentOS system is returning useradd: user example exists. I can successfully manually add the user to /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, but that workaround is A Bad Thing. The user exists in LDAP, but PAM isn't using LDAP for authentication. Adding other users works fine. I'm stumped.

ETA:

[root ~]# userdel example
userdel: error deleting password entry
userdel: error deleting shadow password entry
[root ~]# useradd example
useradd: user example exists
[root ~]# su example
bash-3.2$ whoami
example
bash-3.2$ groups example
example : Users
bash-3.2$ cd
bash: cd: /home/example: No such file or directory
bash-3.2$

Have a look at this: http://serverfault.com/questions/62743/what-files-are-created-modified-when-adding-a-user-useradd-in-linux — Khaled, Jan 16 '12 at 13:46
@Khaled It drops me into a standard bash shell. `pwd` shows location as `/root`. `whoami` shows as the user, `groups example` shows that they're a member of the Users group — Tom, Jan 16 '12 at 13:50
`[root@ ~]# which useradd` `/usr/sbin/useradd`, not aliased. — Tom, Jan 16 '12 at 14:33

kubanczyk · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-16T15:49:53.847

10

If you include LDAP in the /etc/nsswitch.conf (for example passwd: files ldap or passwd:compat passwd_compat:ldap, etc.) it is enough for getent passwd and thus for useradd to see LDAP entries.

Both utilities have nothing to do with PAM, and happily recognize LDAP entries even if PAM knows nothing about LDAP.

By the way, if you have nscd running, remember to restart it after you change nsswitch.conf.

edited Jan 16 '12 at 15:49

answered Jan 16 '12 at 14:50

kubanczyk

13,812
5
41
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Goodness, my understanding of linux auth is clearly lacking. I didn't know that was a thing. That was it, thanks! – Tom Jan 16 '12 at 15:03

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '19 at 12:19

0

I was able to delete user and adding him again after stopping the sssd service (I had no idea it was on the server)

service sssd stop
deluser -f MyUser

answered Sep 10 '19 at 12:19

DimiDak

128
3

Unable to add user using useradd

2 Answers2

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