AFSWiki Change Username Process

From AFSWiki

This page describes how a sysadmin should change the username of an existing user. This is a hacky process at the moment, and it's labor-intensive. Its use should be minimized. Use it if necessary, for example, when the original username was set up with a typo and thus doesn't follow the canonical form of usernames as described in AFSWiki Add New User Process.

1. Log in as yourself, then edit the existing user's User: page, adding a note saying
   1. this account has been replaced by (insert the desired new account's username)
   2. why the change was necessary
2. Create a new account for the existing user as if that person were a new user.
3. Determine the password of the person's previously existing account (their "old account").
   1. If the password has not been changed since it was set up, you already know what it is.
   2. If the user has changed the password, then ask the user to log in, navigate to the "preferences" screen, and change the password to something that's not confidential, e.g., the password "temporary," and tell you what that non-confidential password is. Use this opportunity to explain to the user that their old account will soon become inaccessible, and that they're getting a brandy-new account. CC:sysadmin on all correspondence.
4. Log in to the old account. Change its password to a random string of letters and digits that no one will remember. Do not keep a record of this password. Clear its associated email address so there's no way to retrieve the password.
5. Log out of the old account.