Cornell University Cornell University CISER

CISER Computing Basics

CISER Research Nodes:  Passwords and Account Lockout Policies

HOW TO SET YOUR  PASSWORD for the CISER Research Nodes

  • PASSWORD RESETS:
    • If you forget your password you may request a new temporary one from ciser@cornell.edu
      • note: We cannot look up passwords for you. Once you receive the new temporary password you will be required to change it to one of your choosing.  See password requirements below.
  • PASSWORD  REQUIREMENTS:
    • Each password must have at least eight characters.  Each password must contain at least three out of the following four elements among its first eight characters:
      • uppercase letters
      • lowercase letters
      • special character
      • digits 
    • Each password must differ from the user's login name or full name, or any permutation of either.  For comparison purposes, an upper case letter and its corresponding lower case letter are equivalent. 
    • New passwords must differ from the old by at least three characters.
    • There will have to be 25 password changes using different passwords before a password may be reused.
    • Users will be prompted to change their password every 42 days.
    • Accounts that have been inactive for 6 months will be contacted; if no response is received, accounts will be disabled.
  • PASSWORD POLICIES:
    • It is against Cornell's Computing Policy Regarding Abuse of Computers and Network (see http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/policies/abuse.html ), and CISER's policy as well, for you to share your account and password with any other person!
    • Please do not form a password by appending a digit to a word--this type of password is easily guessed. 
    • Never leave your password in plain text (unencrypted) in any file in your home directory. Passwords stored in this way are easily stolen. 

  • WHEN TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD:
    • any time you think yours has been compromised, or when you get a message that your password is about to expire.
    • but NOT when you have current jobs running!  In order to prevent account lockouts, check to be sure that you have ended your jobs and logged completely off all other CISER Research Nodes before changing your password. Disconnected sessions on other nodes, set up under you old password, will generate periodic account lockouts. 

  • HOW TO CHANGE YOUR  PASSWORD BEFORE IT EXPIRES:
    • Disconnect any network drives you have mapped from the file server ("ciserrschdfs") to your local PC
      • On your local PC:
        • Start --> right click on My Network Places --> choose "disconnect network drive". 
        • Select the drive you have mapped to "rschdfs" then click "OK".
      • Drives may be re-mapped after your password has been changed.
    • Log on to any CISER Research Nodes via Remote Desktop Web Connection or Remote Desktop Client
    • Log off all disconnected and/or active sessions on other nodes
      • Use Terminal Services Manager  on the current node.
      • note: If you have jobs running we recommend you wait until those have been completed before proceeding with this step.
    • Use the Windows Security Window to change your password
      • Details: 
        • Start --> Settings --> Windows Security
        • OR be sure you are in full-screen mode (toggle to and from full-screen mode with Ctrl-Alt-Break) and then do Ctrl-Alt-End to open the Windows Security window.
        • Be sure to follow these password requirements.

  • HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD AFTER IT HAS EXPIRED:
    • Disconnect any network drives you have mapped from the file server ("ciserrschdfs") to your local PC
      • Details:
        • On your local PC:
          • Start --> right click on My Network Places --> choose "disconnect network drive" 
          • Select the drive you have mapped to "rschdfs" then click "OK"
        • Drives may be re-mapped after your password has been changed.
    • Log on to any CISER Research Nodes via Remote Desktop Web Connection or Remote Desktop Client
    • Change your password following the on-screen instructions
      • Be sure to follow these password requirements.
      • NOTE: If there are no on-screen instructions and you have successfully logged on with your old password, then follow Step 4 in the section above.
    • *Before logging off!* do this:
      • Use Terminal Services Manager  to check for and log off any disconnected sessions on other nodes.  
        • note: if you have active or disconnected sessions on any node that were started with the old password, you will most likely experience periodic lockouts as those sessions continue to send your old password to the domain.  
        • note: if you experience an "account lockout" before you can log off an old session see the Account Lockout FAQ.

HOW TO CHECK NODE USAGE:

  • Method one:  CHECK NODE USAGE ON ANY NODE TO WHICH YOU ARE LOGGED ON:
    • On the CISER Research Nodes:
      • Start --> Run --> type in "taskmgr" and click "OK"  (or right-click an empty spot on the taskbar, choose "Task Manager" and click "OK")
      • Select the "Performance" tab to see current CPU and memory usage.
        • If usage is high you may wish to log off that node and switch to another node.

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