Tasks and roles
Each HMC user can be a member of a different role. Each of these roles allows the user to access different parts of the HMC and perform different tasks on the managed system. HMC roles are either predefined or customized.
The roles discussed in this section refer to HMC users; operating systems running on logical partitions have their own set of users and roles. When you create an HMC user, you must assign that user a task role. Each task role allows the user varying levels of access to tasks available on the HMC interface. For more information about the tasks each HMC user role can perform, see HMC tasks, user roles, IDs, and associated commands.
You can assign managed systems and logical partitions to individual HMC users. This allows you to create a user that has access to managed system A but not to managed system B. Each grouping of managed resource access is called a managed resource role. To learn more about managed resource roles and how to create them, see Manage Task and Resource Roles.
The predefined HMC roles, which are the default on the HMC, are as follows:
| Role | Description | HMC User ID |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | The operator is responsible for daily system operation. | hmcoperator |
| Super Administrator | The super administrator acts as the root user, or manager, of the HMC system. The super administrator has unrestricted authority to access and modify most of the HMC system. | hmcsuperadmin |
| Product Engineer | A product engineer assists in support situations, but cannot access HMC user management functions. To provide support access for your system, you must create and administer user IDs with the product engineer role. | hmcpe |
| Service Representative | A service representative is an employee who is at your location to install, configure, or repair the system. | hmcservicerep |
| Viewer | A viewer can view HMC information, but cannot change any configuration information. | hmcviewer |
| Client live update | The client live update role is intended for use when you are using the AIX® Live Update capability on a partition of a managed system. A client live update user has authority that is limited to what is necessary to perform a live update on AIX. | hmcclientliveupdate |
You can create customized HMC roles by modifying predefined HMC roles. Creating customized HMC roles is useful for restricting or granting specific task privileges to a certain user. For more information about creating customized HMC roles, see Manage Task and Resource Roles.
