5.2 How to Make Your Password Case-Sensitive

In eDirectory 8.8 and later, you can make your passwords case-sensitive for all the clients by enabling Universal Password. Universal Password is disabled by default.

5.2.1 Prerequisites

By default LDAP and other server-side utilities use NDS login first and if this fails, use the Simple Password login. For the case-sensitive password feature to work, the login needs to happen through Novell Modular Authentication Service (NMAS). Therefore, you need to set the NDSD_TRY_NMASLOGIN_FIRST environment variable to true to make the case-sensitive password feature available.

Complete the following procedure to make the case-sensitive password feature available:

  1. Set the environment variable

    • Linux:

      Add the following in the /opt/novell/eDirectory/sbin/pre_ndsd_start at the end.

      NDSD_TRY_NMASLOGIN_FIRST=true
export NDSD_TRY_NMASLOGIN_FIRST

    • Windows:

      Right-click My Computer and select Properties. In the Advanced tab click Environment Variables. Under System Variables, add the variable and set the value to true.

  2. Restart the eDirectory server.

    NOTE:Using NMAS for authentication increases the time taken for login.

5.2.2 Making Your Password Case-Sensitive

  1. Log in to eDirectory using the existing password.

    In the case of fresh install, the existing password is the one that you set while configuring eDirectory 8.8.

    For example, your password is “novell”.

    NOTE:This password is not case-sensitive.

  2. Enable Universal Password.

    For more information, refer to Section 2.0, Deploying Universal Password.

  3. Log out of eDirectory.

  4. Log in to eDirectory using the existing password with the case you want.

    The password you give now will be case-sensitive.

    For example, you enter “NoVELL”.

    Your password is now “NoVELL”. Therefore, “novell” or any alternate capitalization combination other than “NoVELL” would be invalid.

If you are migrating to case-sensitive passwords, refer to Section 5.3.1, Migrating to Case-Sensitive Passwords.

Any new password you set will be case-sensitive depending on which level (object or partition) you have enabled Universal Password.

5.2.3 Managing Case-Sensitive Passwords

You can manage the case sensitivity of your passwords by enabling or disabling Universal Password through iManager. For more information, refer to Section 2.0, Deploying Universal Password.