---
layout: docs
page_title: Manage users and groups
description: How to manage Boundary users and groups
---

# Managing principals

Users and Groups in Boundary are collectively known as principals. Assigning
[grants](/boundary/docs/rbac#grant-strings) on
[roles](/boundary/docs/domain-model/roles) is performed through principal IDs;
that is, the unique IDs of either users, groups, or both.

This page will walk you through managing users within Boundary. (Groups will be
added at a later time.)

## Users

Users in Boundary represent an _internal_ notion of a particular entity (human,
machine, etc.). Users can be correlated with one or more
[account](/boundary/docs/domain-model/accounts) resources via [auth
methods](/boundary/docs/domain-model/auth-methods). Accounts represent
_external_ notions of a particular entity. Among other use-cases, this mechanism
allows for an easy way to switch users to new IdPs within the organization
deploying Boundary.

In this example, we're going to show you how to create an account and user for
an auth method to allow that user to login to Boundary. Because an auth method
can be at the org and global scopes, we're going to create an org-scoped auth
method in the default generated org in a `dev` mode server. (If you're not
running `dev` mode, you'll need to substitute appropriate generated IDs in the
steps below.)

~> Currently, all auth methods auto-vivify users on authentication; that is, on
successful authentication against an account, if there is no user already linked
with that account, a user will be automatically created. This may be a nice
time-saver, but in other situations (such as when you want Terraform to fully
describe the Boundary resources) this may be undesirable, so the steps below
walk you through manually making these resources and linking them. A future
Boundary update will allow turning off auto-vivification on a per-auth-method
basis.

## Create an auth method

Create a password-type auth method in the generated default org:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="CLI">


```bash
$ boundary auth-methods create password -scope-id o_1234567890 -name org_auth_method -description 'Org auth method'

Auth Method information:
  Created Time:                Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:32:04 PDT
  Description:                 Org auth method
  ID:                          ampw_PbE6nNT72a
  Name:                        org_auth_method
  Type:                        password
  Updated Time:                Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:32:04 PDT
  Version:                     1

  Scope:
    ID:                        o_1234567890
    Name:                      Generated org scope
    Parent Scope ID:           global
    Type:                      org

  Attributes:
    Minimum Login Name Length: 3
    Minimum Password Length:   8
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Admin Console">


1. Navigate to an org, then to auth methods.
1. Choose the **New** button.
1. Fill in the auth method details.
1. Choose **Save** and view the auth method edit form page.

<video muted playsInline autoPlay loop class="boundary-clickthrough-video">
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    type="video/mp4"
    src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602261000-boundary-clickthrough-manage-identities-create-auth-method.mp4"
  />
</video>

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Terraform">


```hcl
resource "boundary_auth_method" "password" {
  name        = "org_auth_method"
  description = "Password auth method for org"
  type        = "password"
  scope_id    = "o_1234567890"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>


## Create an account

Create an account for the org-scoped auth method. Note that by default, user
names must be all lowercase alphanumeric of at least 3 characters and the
password must be 8 or more characters. (The minimum lengths can be changed in
the attributes for the auth method, if desired.)

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="CLI">


```bash
boundary accounts create password -auth-method-id ampw_PbE6nNT72a -login-name 'myuser' -name my_account -description 'My password account'

Account information:
  Auth Method ID:      ampw_PbE6nNT72a
  Created Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:35:02 PDT
  Description:         My password account
  ID:                  acctpw_BOn3EcqQfe
  Name:                my_account
  Type:                password
  Updated Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:35:02 PDT
  Version:             1

  Scope:
    ID:                o_1234567890
    Name:              Generated org scope
    Parent Scope ID:   global
    Type:              org

  Attributes:
    Login Name:        myuser
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Admin Console">


1. Navigate to orgs > auth methods > auth method, then to the **Accounts** tab.
1. Choose the **New** button.
1. Fill the account details.
1. Choose **Save** and view the account edit form page.

<video muted playsInline autoPlay loop class="boundary-clickthrough-video">
  <source
    type="video/mp4"
    src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602260998-boundary-clickthrough-manage-identities-create-account.mp4"
  />
</video>

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Terraform">


```hcl
resource "boundary_account" "my_user" {
  name           = "myuser"
  description    = "Login account for my user"
  type           = "password"
  login_name     = "myuser"
  password       = "supersecure"
  auth_method_id = "ampw_PbE6nNT72a"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>


## Create a user

Next, create a user at the org scope.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="CLI">


First, create the user resource:

```bash
$ boundary users create -name "myuser" -description "My user resource" -scope-id o_1234567890

User information:
  Created Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 06:37:12 PDT
  Description:         My user resource
  ID:                  u_yXhZpt5PX3
  Name:                myuser
  Updated Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 06:37:12 PDT
  Version:             1

  Scope:
    ID:                o_1234567890
    Name:              Generated org scope
    Parent Scope ID:   global
    Type:              org
```

Then associate the user with the account previously created:

```bash
$ boundary users set-accounts -id u_yXhZpt5PX3 -account acctpw_BOn3EcqQfe

User information:
  Created Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:43:43 PDT
  Description:         My org user
  ID:                  u_yXhZpt5PX3
  Name:                my_user
  Updated Time:        Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:54:11 PDT
  Version:             2

  Scope:
    ID:                o_1234567890
    Name:              Generated org scope
    Parent Scope ID:   global
    Type:              org

  Accounts:
    ID:                acctpw_BOn3EcqQfe
    Scope ID:          o_1234567890
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Admin Console">


1. Navigate to an org, then to users.
1. Choose the **New** button.
1. Fill the user details.
1. Choose **Save** and view the user edit form page.

<video muted playsInline autoPlay loop class="boundary-clickthrough-video">
  <source
    type="video/mp4"
    src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602261002-boundary-clickthrough-manage-identities-create-user.mp4"
  />
</video>

Then associate the user with an account:

1. From the user edit form, navigate to the **Accounts** tab.
1. Choose **Add Accounts** from the **Manage** dropdown.
1. Select one or more accounts to associate with the user.
1. Choose the **Add Accounts** button and view the user accounts list.

<video muted playsInline autoPlay loop class="boundary-clickthrough-video">
  <source
    type="video/mp4"
    src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602260997-boundary-clickthrough-manage-identities-assign-account-to-user.mp4"
  />
</video>

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Terraform">


```hcl
resource "boundary_user" "myuser" {
  name        = "myuser"
  description = "My user resource"

  # taken from the example account resource defined above
  account_ids = [ boundary_account.myuser.id ]
  scope_id    = "o_1234567890"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>


## Log in

Now you can test logging in.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="CLI">


```bash
$ boundary authenticate password -auth-method-id ampw_PbE6nNT72a
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Admin Console">


1. Navigate to the authenticate page.
1. Choose an org scope with which to authenticate.
1. Fill the credentials.
1. Choose **Authenticate** and view the projects overview for the org.

<video muted playsInline autoPlay loop class="boundary-clickthrough-video">
  <source
    type="video/mp4"
    src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602261004-boundary-clickthrough-manage-identities-login.mp4"
  />
</video>

</Tab>
<Tab heading="Terraform">


```hcl
provider "boundary" {
  addr                            = "http://127.0.0.1:9200"
  auth_method_id                  = "ampw_PbE6nNT72a"
  password_auth_method_login_name = "myuser"
  password_auth_method_password   = "supersecure"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>
