In Ubuntu, how can I give two groups of users root power except for access to one folder?

Question

I just created a Ubuntu development server and I would like to work with two teams on it. I want people from these teams to do anything they want, but I don't want them to be able to see the files from the other team, how do I do that?

If I put them in the sudo-ers file, they can access the folder from the other team, without sudo, they complaint that they aren't able to install new software on the machine. How can I give them the power they need without the ability to see the other team's files?

Answer 1

How about two different virtual machines, that way they each can do what they want to the system without having access to each others' files.

Answer 2

You can give access to sudo on a per command basis.

add apt-get, starting and stopping needed daemons in /etc/init.d and that's it.

Answer 3

Create two groups, and add users to each group based on the team separation.

Also, I'd create two home dirs (e.g. /home/team1 and /home/team2) and when creating users create their home dirs under each, as well as setting them to the correct group

useradd -D /home/team1/jsmith -g team1

Then implement @Hubert suggestion of restricting the 'sudo' activities. Sudo has tons of different configs it may take several back and forths with the teams to square them away.