Create a user account

Use the Server app to create a user account for each person who uses the services provided by your server. You can create a local user account or a local network user account.

You can use templates you’ve created to apply predefined settings for a new user. For information, see Create templates.

  1. Select Users in the Server app sidebar.

  2. Click the pop-up menu, then choose Local Users or Local Network Users, then click Add add.

    Local users are stored on your local computer and local network users are stored on your Open Directory server. If you don’t have an Open Directory server running, Local Network Users isn’t available in the pop-up menu. For more information, see About user accounts.

  3. If you created templates, choose a template from the Template pop-up menu.

    Your predefined settings from the template automatically populate for the new user.

  4. In the Full Name field, enter the user’s name.

    The name can be up to 255 characters (or as few as 85 Japanese characters), and can include spaces.

  5. In the Account Name field, leave the generated short name or enter a different one.

    After the account is created, you can’t change this short name.

    The short name is typically eight or fewer characters, but can be up to 255 Roman characters. Use only the characters a through z, A through Z, 0 through 9, . (period), _ (underscore), or - (hyphen).

    Note:  If a user has a short name on a Mac, try to use the same short name for the user’s account on the server. Having the same short name helps with the user’s access to services.

  6. Enter the user’s email address in the Email Address field.

  7. Enter the user’s password in the Password and Verify fields.

    You can use Password Assistant to help you choose a password. Click the button at the right of the Password field to see how secure the password is. The user can change this password in Users & Groups preferences on his or her computer.

  8. To associate a picture with the user account, click the silhouette and select a standard picture, or click Edit Picture to customize a picture.

    When you click Edit Picture, you can take a picture with your computer’s camera or choose a graphics file already on your computer. After taking or choosing a picture, you can drag the picture to pan it, or use the slider to zoom it. When you finish customizing the picture, click Set.

  9. Click Create.

See also
Change a user’s account settings
Change a user’s group membership
Change a user’s or group’s picture
Change a user’s or group’s picture
Delete a user account
Grant access to users from another network account server
Host network accounts