Changing user account names

Discussion in 'Software' started by nugget, Jan 20, 2009.

  1. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Hi all. I have the following task that I need to do, namely changing some user accounts to reflect that the ladies have gotten married and have changed their names.

    Here is our basic set up

    Account name: LastnameFirstInitial eg. SmithJ
    User Folders: follow the same format as account name
    Email Account: [email protected] eg. John.Smith@...

    Is there anyone with any experience with having done this and what are the gotchas that I would have to look out for?

    Or would it just be easier to create a new account and email for the ladies involved?

    TIA
     
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  2. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    We used to do this all the time (they still do, I dont).

    What we did was:

    Rename the account - you need to remember to update the SAM, UPN, displayname, forename and surname details. Update the Exchange alias name.

    Add a new email address for the new name, and set it to primary (we leave the old address on the account for about 1 month to allow a crossover time).

    In AD, right-click on the user and select rename in order to change how it displays in the list - trust me, its a pain in the arse if you dont.

    Rename the users folder to the new name.

    That really is all you have to do normally to rename the users account.
     
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  3. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    I update surname and description, but never rename the account as it would muck up the synchronisation we have with our DMS.

    If the user doesn't want to log in using their married name (and this has no procedural imlications) then just a change of these details should suffice I would have thought?

    Oh, and manually adding in their new SMTP records and changing their primary SMTP :)

    (was doing this this morning, what a coincidence!)
     
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  4. nXPLOSi

    nXPLOSi Terabyte Poster

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    Its a pain for sure...

    When we have to do it, we do pretty much what Fergal has said - with no problems to date.
     
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  5. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Thanks for the advice. Is there anything else to watch out for like users ownership/permissions etc that might be tricky?
     
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  6. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    No, you wil be fine as the GUID is used for identifying the account, not the display name.

    For me I just right click on the account in AD and select rename. Also check the email addresses as well as the user will probably want to keep her existing email address as an alias.
     
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