Understanding character limitations for user IDs and passwords
is important because they are used throughout WebSphere Application
Server to provide access and secure content. The character limitations
provided here apply to the WebSphere Application Server administrator,
the database administrator, the LDAP server administrator, and user
IDs. Database and LDAP servers can have more restrictive limitations
than provided here. Therefore you should check the database and LDAP
server product documentation for restrictions. Failure to correctly
define user IDs and passwords during the installation process can
result in installation failure. In addition, your specific installation
might have more restrictive user ID and password requirements that
you must also follow.
When a person signs up as a user or when an administrator enrolls
a user, they must complete the user information form. On this form,
do not enter characters that might not be supported. Regardless of
what characters you are able to enter on the user information form,
user ID and passwords are limited to the valid characters described
here. You can specify other characters in the First Name and Last
Name fields. If your company policy is more restrictive, you can
provide that information to your users in the enrollment form help
or as inline help directly on the form.
Avoid trouble: WebSphere Application Sever cannot create user IDs or
passwords that contain spaces, although it fully supports any existing
user IDs and passwords or those created in the user repository that
contain spaces.
gotcha
Under normal circumstances a valid user ID and password can contain
the following characters:
- Lowercase characters {a-z}
- Uppercase characters {A-Z}
- Numbers {0-9}
- Exclamation point {!}
- Open parenthesis {(}
- Close parenthesis {)}
- Dash {-}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Period {.}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Question mark {?}
- Open bracket {[}
- Close bracket {]}
- Underscore {_}; this is the only supported special character
in IBM i
- Grave accent {`}
- Tilde {~}
- Commercial at {@}, this character is not supported when creating
the WebSphere Application Server administrator during installation.
Avoid trouble: These are all ASCII characters.
Non-ASCII characters are not allowed for a username or password.
gotcha
If you plan on using a non-ASCII based encoding, ensure your Java
Virtual Machine has the correct generic arguments specific for the
non-ASCII based encoding. For example, for UTF-8 encoding, the following
two parameters should be added to the Java Virtual Machine generic
arguments for WebSphere Portal: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 and -Dclient.encoding.override=UTF-8.
Note: Some tasks might require you to enter the
fully qualified user ID. If your fully qualified user ID contains
a space; for example:
cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software
Group,dc=ibm,dc=com, you must place the fully qualified
user ID in the properties file or into a parent properties file instead
of as a flag on the command line. For example, create a parent properties
file called
mysecurity.properties, enter the
fully qualified user ID, and then run the task:
./ConfigEngine.sh task_name -DparentProperties=/opt/mysecurity.properties.
Note: Some tasks may require you to enter the fully qualified
user ID. If your fully qualified user ID contains a space; for example:
cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software
Group,dc=ibm,dc=com, you must place quotes around the
fully qualified user ID before running the task; for example,
"cn=wpsadmin,cn=users,l=SharedLDAP,c=US,ou=Lotus,o=Software
Group,dc=ibm,dc=com".
The following table contains a list of the required fields on the
user information form and the supported characters.
Table 1. Valid characters and unsupported characters
for user information
User information |
Valid characters |
Unsupported characters |
User ID |
- Lowercase characters {a-z}
- Uppercase characters {A-Z}
- Numbers {0-9}
- Exclamation point {!}
- Open parenthesis {(}
- Close parenthesis {)}
- Dash {-}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Period {.}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Question mark {?}
- Open bracket {[}
- Close bracket {]}
- Underscore {_}; this is the only supported special character
in IBM i
- Grave accent {`}
- Tilde {~}
- Commercial at {@}, this character is not supported when creating
the WebSphere Application Server administrator during installation.
|
Only ASCII characters are allowed.
Other restrictions: The user ID cannot contain
spaces; for example, user name.
User IDs cannot be longer
than 200 characters.
User IDs cannot be longer
than 8 characters and must also conform to the appropriate guidelines
if you use SAF products such as RACF®.
If
you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you
will receive an error message that states which character is invalid.
For example, "The special character [@] was found in the administrative
user ID field. Enter the administrative user ID again." Avoid trouble: You receive a different error message
if you enter any unsupported characters when creating users through
the Manage users and groups portlet. gotcha
|
Password / Confirm password |
- Lowercase characters {a-z}
- Uppercase characters {A-Z}
- Numbers {0-9}
- Exclamation point {!}
- Open parenthesis {(}
- Close parenthesis {)}
- Dash {-}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Period {.}; this character is not supported as the first character
in the user ID or password
- Question mark {?}
- Open bracket {[}
- Close bracket {]}
- Underscore {_}; this is the only supported special character
in IBM i
- Grave accent {`}
- Tilde {~}
- Commercial at {@}, this character is not supported when creating
the WebSphere Application Server administrator during installation.
|
Diacritics, such as the umlaut, and DBCS characters are
not allowed.
Other restrictions: The
password cannot contain spaces; for example, pass
word.
Passwords cannot be longer
than 128 characters.
Passwords cannot be longer
than 8 characters and must also conform to the appropriate guidelines
if you use SAF products such as RACF.
Avoid trouble: Login or ConfigEngine tasks might
fail if the password contains any unsupported characters, including
DBCS characters. This action happens even if a user is successfully
enrolled using a password containing DBCS characters. gotcha
If
you enter any unsupported characters during the installation, you
will receive an error message that states which character is invalid.
For example, "The special character [@] was found in the password
field. Enter the password again."
|
First Name |
All characters |
n/a |
Last Name |
All characters |
n/a |
The previous characters are true if the user.UNIQUEID.charset parameter
is set to ascii. If set to unicode,
the standard Java Letter definition
is used and all characters that are recognized as letter or digit
by Java are allowed by default.
See the Puma Validation Service section in
the "Portal configuration services" link for information about further
parameters that can be modified to affect the behavior of Portal's
validation of users, groups, and passwords.