What local users and groups are

You can use local users and groups to secure and manage user accounts and groups stored locally on a storage system.

A user is an account that is authenticated on a storage system. Users can be placed into storage system groups to grant them capabilities on the storage system. When your system is first installed and CIFS is configured in Workgroup mode, a user named “administrator” is automatically created. This user login can be used to access shares with a blank password. You should change the password for this built-in account to increase security on your system.

A group is a collection of users that can be granted one or more roles. Groups can be predefined, created, or modified. When CIFS is enabled, groups act as Windows groups.

You can use local users and groups to limit the ability of users to perform certain actions by assigning them rights and permissions. A right authorizes a user to perform certain actions on a computer, such as backing up files and folders or shutting down a computer. A permission is a rule associated with an object (usually a file, folder, or printer), and it regulates which users have access to the object. You cannot use local users and groups to view local user and group accounts after a member server is promoted to a domain controller.