Updating User Passwords

In Niagara 4 FIPS stations, all user passwords must be at least 14 characters in length. This is a change from NiagaraAX, where passwords must be 10 characters or longer. As a result, passwords should be changed before installing the FIPS license. There are two ways to accomplish this.

Manually change all passwords before migration

This method is suitable for stations with a small number of users, who can all be contacted to change their passwords before migration.

NOTE: Although an administrator could set other users’ passwords and inform them of their new passwords, this is NOT recommended. Only the user should know their own password, and passwords should never be shared via email.

Change administrator passwords, then set force change option on all other passwords

This method is suitable for stations with a large number of users, where it is not feasible to get each user to change their password before the migration.

In Niagara, each password-based user has a Force Reset At Next Login property. If this is set to true, they will be forced to change their password the next time they log in. When they log in, they will be forced to change their password to a FIPS-compliant one.

Before installing the FIPS license, certain administrator users may choose to manually upgrade their passwords, and then set the Force Reset At Next Login property to "true" for all other users.

NOTE: All user accounts corresponding to devices should be manually changed. If the accounts will only be used from non-FIPS platforms, they will continue to function, but the shorter passwords are not FIPS compliant.

NOTE: Users corresponding to remote accounts (e.g. LDAP users) should not be manually changed nor forced to reset their password. Niagara does not support changing password on LDAP servers.

CAUTION: A user using a FIPS Workbench will not be able to log in to the station until their password has been changed. They can, however, log in from the browser or from a non-FIPS Workbench.

CAUTION: For device users meant for station-to-station connections, changing the password will break connectivity until the password is updated in the client station’s NiagaraNetwork entry.