Automating Session reset and password reset

[dima55]

I have been bombarded a lot lately of end users who keep forgetting their TM1 passwords or who lock themselves . Is there a way for end users to recover their lost/forgotten passwords or reset thier session so they don't have to keep contacting me to reset it for them? . I am currently using cognos 9.5. for security puprposes we have kept maximum ports as 1.

[qml]

For the issue of hanging user sessions you can use the IdleConnectionTimeOutSeconds parameter in tm1s.cfg. It will log out users after a specified period of inactivity, including being locked out.

As for the passwords... there is really no way to recover a password as it is stored in an encrypted way. You can change it using a TI function AssignClientPassword(), but of course to run a TI with this function you need to be logged on. Maybe you can design a custom-built application that would somehow verify user's identity (e.g based on their windows session logon name) and if they are who they claim to be, they would be able to run a TI process using some "system" account and change their password from there). This should be possible with e.g. a bit of Excel VBA + TM1 API, but it's always a security risk, because even if you password-protect the VBA project, it's easier to crack from that side then to break into TM1 directly.

[PlanningDev]

Ive asked this question to. You might be able to do it with the .net api.

I think the idea would be to popluate user's e mails when you add them to TM1 (if you use TM1 security). On the .net api side you would have a user enter their login id which would create a random password then send a confirmation through e mail to that users e mail. From the email you would return to the site and provide the user id and random password which at this point would actually assign the random password to the user.

Now the user could login to TM1 with the random password and change it from there or you could build out the api further to include a login and password change.

[rkaif]

The suggestions above will be useful.

On the other hand if you implement the Integrated Security then in that case you will not have worry about managing user passwords within TM1 as they will be authenticated externally (LDAP, Cognos, Active Directory etc.)

[dima55]

Thanks alot rkaif , PlanningDev and qml for your replies.

Rkaif
I am not aware of this integrated password could please put insight on this.

Thanks
Dima55

[rkaif]

I am not aware of this integrated password could please put insight on this.

Lets say you are using CAM Authentication. In that case you will not have to create users/passwords in TM1 - actually the user names/passwords will be managed by Cognos. You can find more information here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.w ... wg21456988

[dima55]

Thanks alot Rizwan Kaif. This looks interesting