UNIX account issue handling at SJSU

A public service announcement for SJSU Unix users
We have seen a big reduction in tickets related to locked accounts and we are no longer assuming all Unix complaints are related to locked accounts. We are including the checking of, and possible unlocking of, Unix accounts into our normal password resetting routine.

All people reporting account issues, even if they suspect the account has been locked, need to treat the incident as a password reset. We will look at the details of the account to see if the account has been locked. If it has, we then forward the ticket to the SJSU Unix system administrator. This process is followed if the account is used for Email or FTP. The first step in dealing with a possible FTP issue is to verify that the related Unix account is working!

If we reset the password ourselves, or get the password back to us from SJSU Unix system administrator, as per university security guidelines, this Help Desk can only release account passwords to the owners of the account. These are folks who own the accounts and physically come to the Help Desk and physically pick up the reset passwords with photo ID. This Help Desk does not have authority to make exceptions to this policy. I do not have the authority to change this procedure. This can only be done by UCAT (we are not UCAT.) I encourage customers to request the ticket number when they make a password reset request and to always refer to this number in subsequent contacts with us (or UCAT) on this matter. This way accidental duplicate tickets can be avoided and so will the possibility that the password could be reset twice, frustrating the client. Armed with this ticket number clients can call the Help Desk and easily check on the status of their ticket.

The process for requesting a UNIX password reset is here [Link].