the nis groups section seen above in fig8 and 10 respectively system users are accounts for example unix accounts that do not belong to a human in other words these are users that provide a way to create an account that an application can use to perform a variety of support tasks for example if a u201c cron u201d entry needs to be created and it is not desired to run the command as u2018 root u2019 one can set up a system user from whose account the u201c cron u201d job can be run as desired system users are either associated with a specific nis domain or are global system users the nis system users maintenance screen according to one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in fig1 at step 1400 a nis system users maintenance screen is activated at step 1410 it starts up with a set of components and buttons that support selecting creating or deleting a nis system user if a new nis system user is needed at step 1420 then a new nis system user can be added to the list by entering the relevant information and clicking the u201c add u201d button at step 1430 if an existing nis system user needs modification at step 1440 then it can be modified at step 1450 by clicking the u201c modify u201d button if an existing nis system user needs to be deleted at step 1460 then it is removed by clicking on the u201c delete u201d button at step 1470 the nis system user maintenance screen can only be accessed by clicking on either the u2018 nis.