We have recently implemented automated processing of the final stages of a user account’s lifecycle within our account management system, ‘Prometheus’. [1] This is used to apply expiry (or ‘grace’) and suspension periods to an account, as described in our account closure policy. [2]

All user accounts have ‘roles’ and ‘entitlements’. These are used by our systems to grant access to services, e.g. possession of a particular entitlement would allow a user to log in to a specific machine. The introduction of full lifecycle management means that most roles and entitlements are preserved for a grace period once an account has expired.

At the beginning of the grace period, an automated mail will be sent to the user, indicating the expiry of their account. At the end of the grace period the account will be automatically disabled (and, subject to the suspension period, deleted).

Eligibility for a DICE account is determined by details in the school database, so it is important that this information is correct and up to date. This is particularly pertinent for short-term visitor accounts. If you are sponsoring a visitor, please ensure that Informatics HR are informed of any changes to visit dates.

[1] https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/systems/2012/09/04/prometheus-account-management-in-informatics/
[2] http://computing.help.inf.ed.ac.uk/account-closure

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