Group management using Unix NIS groups

In one implementation, a system for managing Groups in a Unix environment includes a group management engine and an NIS converter. A group information database stores information about Groups and their Members. The group management engine receives commands from Administrators of a Group to change attributes of Members in the Group. It accesses the database and makes the requested changes. The information in the database is not in an NIS-compatible format. The NIS converter accesses the database and generates an NIS group file that describes a Group and its Members in a format that is NIS-compatible. For example, the NIS group file can be incorporated into the master NIS group map using the #Include# construct.