Difference between Super User and Sysadmin


Most of the budding Documentum developers get confused about the differences between a Super User and a Sysadmin. Though I had mentioned these points on my Documentum Security notes PDF file, I feel this needs a separate entry here. So just listing few important privileges of Sysadmin and Super User here. This list is not exhaustive but I guess I have most of it here, if you feel that I missed some important please feel free to add it as a comment.

Sysadmin

  • Create, alter, and drop users and groups
  • Create, modify, and delete system-level ACLs
  • Grant and revoke Create Type, Create Cabinet, and Create Group privileges
  • Create types, cabinets, and printers
  • Manipulate workflows or work items, regardless of ownership
  • Manage any object’s lifecycle
  • Set the a_full_text attribute

 The Sysadmin privilege does not override object-level permissions

 Super User

  • Perform all the functions of a user with Sysadmin privileges
  • Unlock objects in the repository
  • Modify or drop another user’s user-defined object type
  • Create subtypes that have no supertype
  • Register and unregister another user’s tables
  • Select from any underlying RDBMS table regardless of whether it is registered or not
  • Modify or remove another user’s groups or private ACLs
  • Create, modify, or remove system ACLs
  • Grant and revoke Superuser and Sysadmin privileges
  • Grant and revoke extended privileges
  • View audit trail entries

Download this Study Note (PDF)

Changing the Repository Owner Password in Documentum


Follow thse steps to change the Repository owner password in Documentum Content Server

  1. Stop the Repository
  2. Go to $DM_HOME/dba/config/<repository name>/
  3. Create a copy of the file with name dbpasswd.txt
  4. In the DB change the password of Repository Owner
  5. Edit the dbpasswd.txt( The file backed up in Step 3) and replace the new password as plain text
  6. Save dbpasswd.txt
  7. Go to $DM_HOME/bin run the following
  8. dm_encrypt_password -docbase <docbase name> -rdbms -encrypt <database password>
  9. Restart the Repository