User IDs and passwords

User IDs and passwords

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Valid user ID and password characters

When a person signs up as a user or when an administrator enrolls a user, they complete the user information form. On this form, do not enter characters that might not be supported. Regardless of what characters you are able to enter on the user information form, user ID and passwords are limited to the valid characters described here. You can specify other characters in the First Name and Last Name fields.
Under normal circumstances a valid user ID and password can contain the following characters:

Lower case characters {a-z}
Upper case characters {A-Z}
Numbers {0-9}
Exclamation point {!}
Open parenthesis {(}
Close parenthesis {)}
Dash {-}
Period {.}
Question mark {?}
Open bracket {[}
Close bracket {]}
Underscore {_}
Grave accent {`}
Tilde {~}

These are all ASCII characters. Non-ASCII characters are not allowed for username or password.

Fully qualified user ID with spaces

For UNIX systems, if a task may requires you to enter the fully qualified user ID, and your user ID contains a space...
cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software Group,dc=ibm,dc=com

... place the fully qualified user ID in the properties file or into a parent properties file instead of as a flag on the command line.
For example...

Create a parent properties file called mysecurity.properties
Edit mysecurity.properties and add entry for user ID.
Run the task...
./ConfigEngine.sh task_name -DparentProperties=/opt/mysecurity.properties

For Windows, if the fully qualified user ID contains a space; for example...
cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software Group,dc=ibm,dc=com

...place quotes around the fully qualified user ID before running the task; for example,
"cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software Group,dc=ibm,dc=com"

Required Fields

The table below contains a list of the required fields on the user information form and the supported characters.

User information Valid characters Characters not supported
User ID

Lower case characters {a-z}
Upper case characters {A-Z}
Numbers {0-9}
Exclamation point {!}
Open parenthesis {(}
Close parenthesis {)}
Dash {-}
Period {.}
Question mark {?}
Open bracket {[}
Close bracket {]}
Underscore {_}
Grave accent {`}
Tilde {~}

Non-ASCII characters are not allowed. Other restrictions: The user ID cannot contain a space: for example, user name; and cannot be longer than 200 characters.
If you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you will receive an error message that states which character is invalid.
For example, "The special character [@] was found in the administrative user ID field. Enter the administrative user ID again."
You will receive a different error message if you enter any unsupported characters when creating users through the Manage users and groups portlet.
Password / Confirm password

Lower case characters {a-z}
Upper case characters {A-Z}
Numbers {0-9}
Exclamation point {!}
Open parenthesis {(}
Close parenthesis {)}
Dash {-}
Period {.}
Question mark {?}
Open bracket {[}
Close bracket {]}
Underscore {_}
Grave accent {`}
Tilde {~}

Diacritics, such as the umlaut, and DBCS characters Other restrictions: The password cannot contain a space: for example, pass word; and cannot be longer than 128 characters.
Login will fail if the password contains any unsupported characters, including DBCS characters. This will happen even if a user is successfully enrolled using a password containing DBCS characters.
If you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you will receive an error message that states which character is invalid.
For example, "The special character [@] was found in the password field. Enter the password again."
First Name All characters n/a
Last Name All characters n/a

The above characters are true if the user.UNIQUEID.charset parameter is set to ascii. If set to unicode, the standard Java Letter definition is used and all characters that are recognized as letter or digit by Java are allowed by default. See "Portal configuration services" for information about the user.UNIQUEID.charset parameter. Modify the following parameters:

Add supported userid character values to the user.UNIQUEID.extra_chars key.
Add supported password character values to the password.extra_chars key.
Add supported, special character values to the group.extra key.
Add special short group ID attributes to the group.RDN key.
Change the maximum character length of the group name on the group.RDN.max key.
Change the minimum character length of the group name on the group.RDN.min key.
Change the charset (either ascii or unicode) on the user.UNIQUEID.charset key.

Parent topic:
Plan for WebSphere Portal

Related tasks

Add an LDAP user registry on AIX in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on AIX in a clustered environment
Add realm support on AIX in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on HP-UX in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on HP-UX in a clustered environment
Add realm support on HP-UX in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on i5/OS in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on i5/OS in a clustered environment
Add realm support on i5/OS in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on Linux in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Linux in a clustered environment
Add realm support on Linux in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on Solaris in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Solaris in a clustered environment
Add realm support on Solaris in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on Windows in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Windows in a clustered environment
Add realm support on Windows in a clustered environment
Add an LDAP user registry on AIX
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on AIX
Add realm support on AIX
Add an LDAP user registry on HP-UX
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on HP-UX
Add realm support on HP-UX
Add an LDAP user registry on i5/OS
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on i5/OS
Add realm support on i5/OS
Add an LDAP user registry on Linux
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Linux
Add realm support on Linux
Add an LDAP user registry on Solaris
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Solaris
Add realm support on Solaris
Add an LDAP user registry on Windows
Add an LDAP user registry over SSL on Windows
Add realm support on Windows

Related reference

Portal configuration services

Related information

Updating user ID and passwords

User information	Valid characters	Characters not supported
User ID	Lower case characters {a-z} Upper case characters {A-Z} Numbers {0-9} Exclamation point {!} Open parenthesis {(} Close parenthesis {)} Dash {-} Period {.} Question mark {?} Open bracket {[} Close bracket {]} Underscore {_} Grave accent {`} Tilde {~}	Non-ASCII characters are not allowed. Other restrictions: The user ID cannot contain a space: for example, user name; and cannot be longer than 200 characters. If you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you will receive an error message that states which character is invalid. For example, "The special character [@] was found in the administrative user ID field. Enter the administrative user ID again." You will receive a different error message if you enter any unsupported characters when creating users through the Manage users and groups portlet.
Password / Confirm password	Lower case characters {a-z} Upper case characters {A-Z} Numbers {0-9} Exclamation point {!} Open parenthesis {(} Close parenthesis {)} Dash {-} Period {.} Question mark {?} Open bracket {[} Close bracket {]} Underscore {_} Grave accent {`} Tilde {~}	Diacritics, such as the umlaut, and DBCS characters Other restrictions: The password cannot contain a space: for example, pass word; and cannot be longer than 128 characters. Login will fail if the password contains any unsupported characters, including DBCS characters. This will happen even if a user is successfully enrolled using a password containing DBCS characters. If you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you will receive an error message that states which character is invalid. For example, "The special character [@] was found in the password field. Enter the password again."
First Name	All characters	n/a
Last Name	All characters	n/a