Administration Guide › Manage User Accounts and Passwords › Plan a Password Policy › How to Set Up a Password Policy

How to Set Up a Password Policy

You should apply any new or changed password policy to a test directory first.

To design and create a password policy, follow these steps:

1. Plan your password policy, including the following:
   • The minimum quality of passwords
   • The lifespan of passwords
   • How you want to administer accounts, including account locking
2. Set up a test directory that contains some typical user account entries.

   Each user account is actually an entry in the directory that contains a userPassword attribute.

3. Create the password rules to implement your policy, including the following:
   • Rules that enforce password quality
   • Rules that enforce password lifespan
   • Rules to help you administer the user accounts in the directory
4. Enable password management in the test directory.
5. Test and fix the password policy.
6. When you are sure that your password policy works correctly, create the same password rules in your live directory.
7. Test the new password policy in your live directory.