Introduction
	You have full root (administrator) access to your VPS, and you create and manage all the other accounts on it. This page covers the kinds of account, how to become root safely, and how to add, edit, and remove users on FreeBSD 15 and Rocky Linux 10. The commands differ between the two systems; the concepts are identical. Three broad categories of account exist: the root superuser, who can do anything; system accounts that own services (the web server runs as www on FreeBSD, apache on Rocky Linux); and the ordinary user accounts you create for people and applications. Day to day, log in as an ordinary user and elevate to root only when you need to.
	Becoming Root
	Rather than logging in directly as root, switch to it from your own account, so the system records who did what. On FreeBSD 15, use su (your account must be in the wheel group) or the lighter-weight doas: $ su - # become root (prompts for the root password) $ doas pkg upgrade # run a single command as root (pkg install doas first) On Rocky Linux 10, use sudo (your account must be in the wheel group) or su: $ sudo dnf upgrade # run a single command as root (prompts for YOUR password) $ sudo -i # an interactive root shell
	Adding and Removing Users
	On FreeBSD 15, the interactive adduser walks you through it, or use pw for scripting; rmuser removes an account: # adduser # interactive # pw useradd jsmith -m -s /usr/local/bin/bash -c "Jane Smith" # passwd jsmith # pw usermod jsmith -G wheel # grant su/doas access # rmuser jsmith # remove On Rocky Linux 10, use useradd, passwd, and userdel: # useradd -m -s /bin/bash -c "Jane Smith" jsmith # passwd jsmith # usermod -aG wheel jsmith # grant sudo access # userdel -r jsmith # remove (and delete home dir) To disable an account without deleting it, lock it: pw lock jsmith on FreeBSD, or usermod -L jsmith on Rocky Linux (and the matching unlock / -U to restore it).
	Groups and Permissions
	Groups let several users share access to a set of files — useful when a team works on one web site. Create a group and add members: # FreeBSD # pw groupadd webteam # pw groupmod webteam -m jsmith,asmith # Rocky Linux # groupadd webteam # gpasswd -a jsmith webteam Every file has an owner, a group, and a set of read/write/execute permissions for owner, group, and others — controlled with chown and chmod. Those commands, and how they apply to web content, are covered on the shell and Apache pages.
	Documentation
	The manual pages document every option — pw(8), adduser(8), and rmuser(8) on FreeBSD; useradd(8), usermod(8), and sudo(8) on Rocky Linux. See also the Securing Your VPS page for password and access hardening.