Naming restrictions for user IDs and passwords

Some restrictions apply to the names that you choose for user IDs and passwords. These restrictions are imposed by the underlying components that IBM® InfoSphere® Information Server uses.

InfoSphere Information Server requires certain restrictions on the characters that are permitted in user IDs and passwords. During the installation of InfoSphere Information Server, a number of other software components might be installed as part of the installation, for example, IBM WebSphere® Application Server, Db2®, Kubernetes, Ansible, and so forth. Each of these components might have their own restrictions on the characters permitted in a user ID or password. Some operating system requirements and user registry requirements might also be applicable.

General requirements
The following characters are not permitted in user IDs and passwords:
  • (white space)
  • ! (exclamation point)
  • " (double quotation mark)
  • # (number sign)
  • $ (dollar sign)
  • % (percent sign)
  • & (ampersand)
  • ' (single quotation mark)
  • : (colon)
  • { (left brace)
  • } (right brace)
The following characters are allowed in user IDs:
  • - (hyphen)
  • , (comma)
  • . (period)
  • = (equal sign)
  • _ (underscore)
  • @ (commercial at)
  • \ (backslash)†
Note:
  1. Only the isadmin user ID permits usage of the $ (dollar sign) character.
  2. †When searching in the InfoSphere Information Server Web administration console for a user or group name that contains a backslash (\), the backslash must be escaped with another backslash (for example, '\\').

Leading or trailing white space, such as spaces, tabs, and line continuation characters, is removed by the installation program. Any existing user IDs and passwords cannot have leading or trailing white space characters as part of their definitions.

Information Server installer requirements
In addition to the use of alphanumeric characters, the InfoSphere Information Server installer has the following requirements regarding special characters:
  • isadmin
    user ID
    Accepts the following characters:
    • $ (dollar sign)
    • - (hyphen)
    • , (comma)
    • . (period)
    • = (equal sign)
    • _ (underscore)
    • @ (commercial at)
    • \ (backslash)
    password
    Restricts the following characters:
    • (white space)
    • % (percent sign)
    • $ (dollar sign)
    • & (ampersand)
    • - (hyphen)
  • wasadmin
    user ID
    Accepts the following characters:
    • . (period)
    • - (hyphen)
    • _ (underscore)
    password
    Accepts the following characters:
    • . (period)
    • - (hyphen)
    • ! (exclamation point)
    • ( (opening parenthesis)
    • ) (closing parenthesis)
    • _ (underscore)
    • ` (back quote)
    • ~ (tilde)
    • @ (commercial at)
    Restricts the following characters:
    • (white space)
    • ^ (caret)
  • dsadmin
    user ID
    Restrictions:
    • No uppercase characters
    • Cannot start with 0-9
    password
    Restricts the following characters:
    • $ (dollar sign)
    • % (percent sign)
    • (white space)
    • & (ampersand)
  • Database user and groups (xmeta, xmetasr, db2inst1, db2fenc1, srduer, dsodb, db2adm, iauser, and so forth)
    user ID
    Restrictions:
    • No uppercase characters
    • Cannot start with 0-9
    password
    Restricts the following characters:
    • $ (dollar sign)
    • % (percent sign)
    • (white space)
    • & (ampersand)
  • Solr, Kafka

    User ID and password fields have no restrictions during installation.

  • Installations involving the microservices tier

    No special characters are allowed in any user ID or password regardless of the previous statements.

Runtime requirements for passwords
Accepts the following characters:
  • ! (exclamation point)
  • # (number sign)
  • $ (dollar sign)
  • % (percent sign)
  • & (ampersand)
  • ' (single quotation mark)
  • : (colon)
  • { (left brace)
  • } (right brace)
Restricts the following characters:
  • (white space)
  • " (double quotation mark)
Other restrictions:
  • dscmdimport command: : (colon)
  • DataStage: & (ampersand) and ' (single quotation mark)
IBM WebSphere Application Server administrator password
The following characters are not permitted:
  • Space characters
  • ^ (caret)
IBM Db2 database user names
  • You can use these characters in IDs if permitted by the operating system:
    • A through Z
    • 0 through 9
    • ! (exclamation point)
    • # (number sign)
    • $ (dollar sign. Must not be the first character.)
    • % (percent sign)
    • ( (opening parenthesis)
    • ) (closing parenthesis)

    AIX® Linux® : User names and passwords cannot start with a numeric digit.

  • AIX Linux : The Db2 database requires these user accounts: Db2 instance owner and Db2 fenced user. These account names cannot begin with these characters:
    • SQL
    • SYS
    • IBM
  • In addition, these account names cannot use these words:
    • USERS
    • ADMINS
    • GUESTS
    • PUBLIC
    • LOCAL
    • Any SQL reserved word in the SQL reference for the database system
  • Names cannot include accented characters.
  • AIX Linux : Users, groups, and instance names must be in lowercase letters.
Metadata repository database password
The first character of the password cannot be a hyphen (-).
IBM WebSphere Application Server trust store password
The password can be made up of only US-ASCII characters and must be a minimum of six characters in length.
Character length limits
  • AIX: Operating system user IDs: 8
  • WebSphere Application Server IDs: 60
  • Db2 user IDs and passwords:
    • AIX Linux: 8
    • Microsoft Windows: 30