Currently, the admin user is created lazily at startup using the default password in pulp.conf. This was done before we had pulp-migrate, so it makes sense why it was done that way. That said, we should consolidate all of the database initialization into a single area. pulp-migrate is the logical choice, so let's move it to there. This came up as part of a RHUI documentation bug. The lazy creation of the default user on start up is wonky when you try to put it into documentation and looks bizarre since we had an explicit database initialization step.
I'd like to request that the priority of this bug be raised. Currently, if you enable LDAP integration prior to the first attempt at using the default admin account, the *default admin user is never created*. 2012-06-04 17:17:00,765 3880:140488436868864: pulp.server.auth.authentication:ERROR: authentication:108 User [admin] specified in certificate was not found in the system My best guess is that the LDAP integration supercedes the lazy creation of the admin user. Since Pulp doesn't currently support Kerberos ticket based auth, this absence is creating problems for automation of deployment.
While investigating something else, I realised my diagnosis here was slightly off - it isn't specifically the presence or absence of LDAP that causes problems, it's whether or not there are any other super-users defined. That's undocumented and rather surprising.
This was fixed as part of the fix for #1080609. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1080609 ***