Computer accounts in HSEAS and HSEAS departments.

General

Obtaining a computer account (often referred to somewhat incorrectly as an 'email' account) in HSEAS is fairly easy. There are a couple of restrictions, so let's get those out of the way.

• An individual cannot send in a request for an account for themselves. The request has to come from an authorized representative of the department. Who is that? The chair, the administrative/secretarial staff can request accounts, and faculty/instructors can request accounts for students in their classes and research assistants that will be working for them.
• The accounts are for UR/HSEAS members and UR business only. Wee may not provide general internet access. We may not provide accounts for family and friends of HSEAS members, unless they are a student or employee (faculty/staff/postdoc) or visiting scientist/student in HSEAS.
• Each person maps to one and only one HSEAS account (i.e., you only get one account).
• Each account maps to one and only one person (i.e., there may not be multiple people with access to a single account).
• We may need to reject account requests under certain circumstances (e.g., we will not create an account for someone whose previous account was deleted due to improper/illegal behavior), unless directed to do so by the Dean).

There are three basic types of accounts on our network; the UNIX account needed by everyone. This provides your most basic identity within the Hajim School. Evenn if you do not intend on using this access, it is important that you activate this account.

The second type of account is the Email account; for undergraduates, this is the UR-provided undergrad email account. HSEAS IT staff do not have the ability to manage or assist with that account. All other HSEAS members (non-undergrads), with the exception of some guests, receive a Zimbra email account. This is provided by the UR (via the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering) but is administered/managed by the HSEAS IT staff. Zimbra is accessed via your UR NetID and its password.

The third account type is the Active Directory (AD) account. This account is also provided by the UR, but like the ZImbra mail accounts, AD accounts for Hajim members are administered by the HSEAS IT group. The AD account is used to access Windows services and Windows systems that are part of the UR AD directory/authentication system. AD also provides access to many University IT provided services (e.g., the UR_Connected wireless network).

The three account types all maintain their passwords separately. That is, setting your HSEAS UNIX password does not affect your NetID or AD passwords. Recently though, the UR has provided an optional linkage between the NetID and AD passwords, so that you may keep both passwords the same with minimal effort.

As of May 2011, new accounts in the HSEAS environment use the NetID as the login name (although the password is still managed seprately). The UR has also been trying to ensure all NetID names match their AD name counterparts - so you shmould need to know only one login name, and possibly only two passwords.

There are just a few steps you need to know:

1. Give a copy of the introductory information packet to each person who will receive an account. They need this, because they will later sign an agreement in which they assert they have this document and have read it
2. Send in the account requests (more on that later).
3. Let the individuals know the accounts are ready, and that they need to sign the agreement forms and pick up their initial password.
4. Send the person to the appropriate place to get the form and password. Usually, this means sending the person to see one of the Computing and Networking Group (CNG) staff members (Note: at this time, only CNG members housed in CSB can take care of this - all materials are kept in CSB). They will need their UR ID card or a driver's license that includes a photo. For some large classes, the instructor may choose to distribute the materials on the first day of class, and collect the signed agreement forms. This must be arranged ahead of time with the CNG.

Specifics

So, now on to how to get an account; you can request a small or large number of accounts at one time.

A Small Number of Accounts

If you are requesting a small number of accounts (e.g, 1-5, typical for new faculty, staff, or grad students), you should simply go to the CNG account request web page http://www.seas.rochester.edu/CNG/Problem/Accounts

and fill out the form you find there. The form looks something like (I've removed the dialog boxes and added comments):

1. Full name (of person receiving this account) - enter the full name of the person who will be using this account, e.g., Bubba Q. Smith
Department (BME/CHE/ECE/ME/OPTICS/HSEAS) - pick one from the list (CEIS should use HSEAS for now).
3. Status (undergrad/grad/staff/visitor/faculty) - what is this person's classification in the department?
4. UR ID Number (enter NONE if you do not have an ID) - previously, the UR ID number was the same as the Social Security Number. It is not legal to use the SSN in this way, and we no longer want SSNs. We do need a unique ID number to be able to generate the account. For anyone but a visitor or other temporary member, we need a UR ID, and they will need to wait until you can get that number from the UR.
5. Affiliation (who is requesting acct, and why)
6. Expiration date (enter NONE if this is permanent, enter a reasonable estimated date for students and visitors; please use format of yyyy/mm/dd). Note that only faculty/staff should have NONE entered for their value. All others should have a reasonable estimate. Most grad students are on a 4-5 year plan, although Masters students may be on a 1-2 year plan. Undergraduates should have their expiration date set to the end of the current academic year, e.g., 20040531 (May 31, 2004, appropriate for the 2003-2004 academic year).
7. Optional: you may enter comments if you wish. - Ok this is the place to indicate special needs, such as mailing list membership, special system access, group membership, etc.
8. Name (Your name, the name of the individual submitting this form)
9. Department (your department)
10. Email (your email address)
11. Phone Number (your phone number)
12. Building&Room (your location).

A Large Number of Accounts

While the form is a convenience if you are requesting a small number of accounts, if you are requesting several accounts (more than 5 or so, common for new grad students in the Fall, or undergraduate courses) filling out the form repeatedly can be a bother. In that case, you have a couple of choices. Whatever you choose to do, send us plain-text only! Do not send Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PDF files (!?!), or text that doesn't match what we need. Anything other than plain text in the correct format causes delays and problems for us, and in most cases, we'll just keep sending it back to you until we get what we need.

If you are working from a course list (available via ISIS), send an electronic copy of the registrar's course registration information for that course to us (mail it to problem@seas.rochester.edu)

You should be able to get this, although you may need to cut and paste if the registrar can't send you one directly. This works really well for classes. It minimizes redundant typing, and minimizes the possibility of error. Course lists of course (sorry, couldn't resist) are usually inaccurate; there will always be students taking the course missing from the list, and students on the list who decided to not take the course. Please let us know about drops - so we can remove/disable those accounts. For adds, you can simply go to the web form and we'll add accounts.

Otherwise, you can send us (problem@seas.rochester.edu) a message containing the information we need as simple text, one account per line, with full name, a colon, and the UR ID number, e.g.,

Bubba Q. Smith:12345678
Beatrice Bagels:87654321

If someone needs a specific login name, you'll need to use the web form. You should include much of the other information gathered in the form, but you only have to enter it once. Specifically, we should know why the accounts are being requested, who is requesting them, your contact information (so we can get in touch with you easily if there are problems) and the expected expriation date for these accounts That value should be set as follows:

• Undergraduates - May 31 of the current academic year. f you're adding an undergrad account in June-December, the expiration date is normally the following May 31.
• Masters students - August 31 of their second academic year. Students added in July of 2007 would have an expriation date of August 31, 2009 if they are expected to graduate withiin two years. Many masters students need only one year, and thus could have their date set to (e.g.) August 31, 2008.
• PhD (doctoral) students - August 31 of their fifth academic year. Students added in July of 2007 would have an expriation date of August 31, 2012. We know that many graduate students need more than five years. That's OK, but set it to August 31 of their fifth year anyway. We can revise it later. Don't condemn these poor souls to 10+ years in graduate school from the start.
• Faculty - unless this is a faculty member that has a known and limited appointment, set their expriation data to NONE.
• Staff - As for faculty. If this is an appointment with a known time frame, use that time frame to set the expiration date. Otherwise, use NONE.
• Guests - This includes visiting scientists and researchers - they have a known period of appointment, so please use that for the expiration date. Also, be sure to include who their sponsor is (a faculty member).

Please be aware that it can take a long time to add a large number of accounts. Don't pass us a list 30 minutes before a class starts. Please do try to get us the list/requests at least a week before they will be needed.

Occasionally, you will request an account for someone who already has an account. Usually, we'll just let you know that they already have one. In many of these cases, the person has forgotten their password. To correct that, they will need to see on of the CNG staff in person (we don't fix this type of problem via email or over the phone) and should bring their UR ID card. They are also strongly urged to call ahead - we are often out of the office, and it is disappointing to make a trip to a CNG office only to find no one home.

We can occasionally make an exception about the UR ID requirement by creating a temporary false UR ID, but that is contingent on receiving a valid UR ID number within a few days. If we don't get that valid ID within a reasonable amount of time, we'll no longer allow the exceptions for that requestor, and will lock that account.

Sample Registrar's Roster Feed

The material your get from the registrar and send to us send should look something like:

SCCR 38351 041                                           A064 08/08/03 11:00 A
 SUBJ 4CHE CRSE 255   TITLE CHE PROCESSES LAB - LECTURE     *** MORE TO COME ***
 LEVEL 01 UNDERGRAD   INSTR POINCARE, RENEE W.
 STATUS ACT/BU              ENRL 018   CAP 040   PROJ 040   REG-STAT
CHE 255
 STUDENT NAME             ID NUMBER  SCR CLS LV COL TS MAJ1 MAJ2 DEGR RAW CRHRS
 BLURFLE, RICHARD PAUL     52255501       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00
 BARFLE, JESSICA NICOL     82445590       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00
 BIFFLE, MELISSA ANN       99392998       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00
 BOOMER, BUBBA JOE         82818948       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00
 TORVALDSON, JORGE LARS    72385377       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00
 GONZALEZ, NILS LUIS       66663767       04  01 04  F  CHE        BS  R    3.00

We need the material to be in a very specific format; either the registrar's format (this one) or the simpler "name:URID" format, and we need the additional information, e.g., the expiration date, but only once for the whole set of new accounts.

Last modifed: Monday, 16-Jan-2012 10:18:40 EST