Issues when changing AS/400 password length

Gobledegook48

5 pts.

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AS/400 passwords

Password

I have asked our AS/400 admins if we can change the QPWDMINLEN value to 7. They have said that if this is cahnaged all the 100 accounts on the system will be deactivated. Is this true? If so is the a way to migrate groups of users iover to the new level?

Asked: November 24, 2008 10:50 AM Last updated: November 24, 2008 6:02 PM

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Last updated: November 24, 2008 5:09 PM GMT

Gilly40023,730 pts.
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Thanks. We'll let you know when a new response is added.

Hi,

I can’t say for sure on this, but I would assume that the system would only give a prompt to change the password for accounts which currently have less than 7 character passwords when the account is used to sign on.

I would suggest trying this when the machine is not being used (maybe over a weekend). Make sure your own account has more than 7 characters for the password. Sign on and <b>leave the session connected</b> for the rest of this. Make 2 test accounts – one with more than 7 characters password and one with less than seven. Use SAVSECDTA to get a backup of your security settings. Change the system value QPWDMINLEN to 7, try signing on on another workstation/session with both test profiles.

If it doesn’t work, you can always reset the QPWDMINLEN and if necessary restore the security data.

Regards,

Martin Gilbert.

From: WaltZ400

I looked at the help text when I did a DSPSYSVAL of QPWDMINLEN and it states

“A change to this system value takes effect the next time a password
is changed.”

Discuss This Question: 1 Reply

graybeard52 Nov 24, 2008 6:02 PM GMT

WaltZ400 is correct. Password rules are enforced only when changing password. So accounts will be active. There is one gotcha to watch out for, if you are changing password LEVEL. In the "upper case only" modes, passwords are actually stored in mixed case (however the user entered them). But the "upper case" level means the case is ignored. So when you switch to a level where case is enforced, some users can't sign on. They think the password has always been upper case, but that's not the case - it just been ignoring the case. They may need to enter lowercase (or vice versa) to get in.

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