What improvements to user email verification, password policy, and account resources were completed in v21.11 and how do they affect me?
In our efforts to better serve our customers, we’ve implemented several enhancements designed to improve security and set a foundation for streamlining user management capabilities for system administrators.
In this article…
What changed?
When did this change happen?
How do these changes affect user creation?
Will this impact my current users?
What if my new user fails to verify their account?
What if I add a user who is already in the Account Management Portal (under User Management)?
What if I create new users through an API or third-party provider?
Security
Will this impact my SSO policies for new users?
What will the new password policy be?
Can an administrator create a password for a new user?
Can I use a username other than email address?
What if I want to add an AppDynamics employee for support?
What changed?
As of release v21.11, AppDynamics has completed upgrades to our user creation process and password policy—a process that began in v21.2. To date, the following changes have been rolled out to all customer SaaS accounts:
New user email verification
When a new user is created, they must verify their account via email prior to logging into your Controller. This will require administrators to provide an accurate email when creating the new user.
Improved password policy
As part of completing their email verification, users will receive a notification to “activate their account”. During this process, the new user is required to create a password, and it will have to adhere to a mandatory “strong” password policy designed to improve account security.
Access to Controller and account resources
When a new user activates their account, they will be able to access the Controller accounts to which they have been assigned as well as the resources of the Account, such as Community and University .
When did this change happen?
We began a staged rollout of these changes starting with v21.2. As of v 21.11, all customer SaaS Controllers have these capabilities.
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How do these changes affect user creation?
Will this impact my current users?
No, current users will not be impacted by this change. The new features only impact users created with the new flow implemented for everyone in v21.11.
NOTE | This is the first phase in a series of enhancements to improve security and overall ease of use for our user management capabilities.
We highly recommend adding accurate email addresses when making any updates to an existing user’s account, as this will be a requirement in the future.
What if my new user fails to verify their account?
When a new user is created, they will be designated a “pending” status until they complete the email verification process. The verification email will expire after 7 days of inactivity.
At that time an administrator can opt to:
Ask the user to invoke the reset password flow, which will resend the activation email for a pending user. To do so:
Direct them to either your Controller login or the Accounts login page :
Click the “Reset Password” link The reset password link, below the "Next" button on the Sign-in screen
Delete the pending user if they no longer require access
What if I add a user who is already in the User Management section of the Account Management Portal?
If you add a user to your Controller account using the email address of a user already found in the user management section of the Account Management Portal:
The user will automatically be able to use their Accounts username (as email address) and password to access the Controller account.
The user will receive an email notifying them of their access to the Controller account, including a link to the account for access.
The Account Management Portal’s user management section will show the user as a “tenant user” of the Controller account, making it clear that they can access the Controller directly using that identity.
What if the user resets their password?
When a user can’t remember the password they set, they can click reset password from the Controller account login page or from the login.appdynamics.com login page.
They will receive an email with a link to reset their password. Once reset, the user will be able to use the new password with their username (as email address) in all related Controller accounts and AppDynamics Accounts experiences.
What if I add the same user’s email address to another Controller account?
Whenever a local user is added to a Controller account using their email address, we match that email account with other existing user accounts using that email address and ensure that it’s the same user credentials that are used for the account.
What does this mean for the user? The user will be able to access all Controller accounts to which they have been added with the same AppDynamics identity (username and password).
What if I create new users via an API or third-party provider?
Even if a user is created via an API script or a third-party integration, the user will still need to complete the email verification process.
If the new user fails to verify their email within 10 days of receiving the notification, they can obtain another activation email using the reset password flow from the login screen.
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Security
Will this impact my SSO policies for new users?
There is no impact for SSO policies at all. This change only applies to SaaS customers whose users are authenticated by AppDynamics, or so-called “local users”. SAML or LDAP users and the associated security provider settings are not impacted.
What is the new password policy?
Minimum length: 8 characters
Contain both upper-case and lower-case letters
Contain at least one number (i.e., 0-9)
Contain at least one special non-alphanumeric character (e.g., !$%^&*)
Can an administrator create a password for a new user?
No, administrators will no longer be able to set the password when creating a new user. The new user will be required to create their password during the email verification process.
Can I use a username other than email address?
No. In order to ensure uniqueness, email is the chosen username format. With email as username, we can ensure that users have a means of receiving operational communications from AppDynamics as well as ensure that the user can access all AppDynamics resources using a single identity.
What if I want to add an AppDynamics employee for support?
Easy. Just add the AppDynamics employee using their email address. The employee will be able to log in to your account securely. Should they leave AppDyamics, they will be unable to access your account further.
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