How to add a Read Only Administrator User account

03/26/2020 197 People found this article helpful 49,142 Views

Description

Read-only mode allows users to view the current configuration and status of a SonicWall security appliance without the risk of making unintentional changes to the configuration.
Read-only mode - Administrator cannot make any changes to the configuration, but can view the browse the entire management UI and perform monitoring actions.

Only administrators that are members of the SonicWall Read-Only Admins user group are given read-only access, and it is the only configuration mode they can access, they cannot edit the configuration and they cannot switch to full configuration mode.

A Read-Only Administrator can:

Browse the full UI
Export appliance settings(EXP)
Download TSR
Filter logs
Export logs

Resolution

To create a Read-Only User you need to follow the steps given below:
Step 1 . Login to firewall UI in configuration mode

Click Manage in the top navigation menu
Navigate to Local Users & Groups
Click on Local Users
Click Add User button (This action will open a new window).

Step 2. Provide Name and Password in User Settings.

Step 3. Go to Groups Tab in same window. Select "SonicWall Read-Only Admins" and Move it to Right Side "Member of:" table and Click OK.

A local user with Read-Only access has been successfully created.

Step 4.

Click Manage in the top navigation menu
Go to Network | Interfaces
Click on the configure button on the interface where you want to enable User Login (Here we are taking example of X0)
Enable User Login for HTTP or HTTPS as per your preference and click OK.

NOTE: It is not recommended to include users in more than one of these(Limited Administrators , SonicWall Administrators, SonicWall Read-Only Admins) user groups. However, if you do so, the following behavior applies: If members of the SonicWall Administrators user group are also included in the Limited Administrators or SonicWall Read-Only Admins user groups, the members will have full administrator rights. If members of the Limited Administrators user group are included in the SonicWall Read-Only Admins user group, the members will have limited administrator rights.

How to Test:

Step 1. Go to Firewall Login Page and Type the read-only User Credentials and Click Login.
Please make sure that your Browser is not blocking any Pop-Ups.

Step 2: Now the User Login Status Window will appear and you need to Click Manage to enter the Firewall UI.

Now after Login to Firewall UI you can see on Top Right corner that access mode is Read Only.

and When this user will try to make any changes , SonicWall will not allow and show an error message in Status bar.