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RichSPK10-Marble
10-Marble
Aug 7, 2023 2:20 PM UTC
Solved

Alternate User Name

I was adding a new user to our Windchill instance and noticed the Alternate User Name fields.  Why would someone have alternate user names?  What are the use cases?

mmeadows-3Answer
16-Pearl
Aug 7, 2023 6:57 PM UTC

Alternate User Name defines additional usernames that can login as the same Windchill user with the same password.  It is used with WindchillDS or OpenDJ LDAP servers.  I have never seen it used with Active Directory as the username is mapped explicitly to the sAMAccountName (or UserPrincipalName).  It may be possible, not sure.

I have seen it used these ways.

  • Administrator and wcadmin are the same user in Windchill.  Administrator is the default Windchill site administrator specified in site.xconf (11.x and earlier).  As of 12.0, we commonly remove Administrator and keep wcadmin because Administrator in Active Directory is a special account we aren't allowed to use.
  • Sometimes users' login names change (e.g. single to married or contractor to permanent employee).
  • Companies can use it when they merge divisions and one company needs to change their login names to match the company standard (e.g. mjones changes to m.jones or mike.jones).
  • It can also be used to mimic Active Directory login credentials: mjones or mjones@ptc.com
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5 replies

BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
Aug 7, 2023 2:41 PM UTC

Not sure for a normal user.

If you look up the WCADMIN account, it is an alternate name for ADMINISTRATOR.

BenLoosli_0-1691419254226.png

 

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    RichSPK10-MarbleAuthor
    10-Marble
    Aug 7, 2023 5:24 PM UTC

    Oh, that's interesting!  I never noticed that.  So, presumably, you could log in as either Administrator or wcadmin and be logging into the same account.

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    BenLoosli23-Emerald III
    23-Emerald III
    Aug 7, 2023 5:43 PM UTC

    That is correct.

    If you look at the header, the username shown is Administrator on both username logins.

    BenLoosli_0-1691430172331.png

     

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      mmeadows-316-PearlAnswer
      16-Pearl
      Aug 7, 2023 6:57 PM UTC

      Alternate User Name defines additional usernames that can login as the same Windchill user with the same password.  It is used with WindchillDS or OpenDJ LDAP servers.  I have never seen it used with Active Directory as the username is mapped explicitly to the sAMAccountName (or UserPrincipalName).  It may be possible, not sure.

      I have seen it used these ways.

      • Administrator and wcadmin are the same user in Windchill.  Administrator is the default Windchill site administrator specified in site.xconf (11.x and earlier).  As of 12.0, we commonly remove Administrator and keep wcadmin because Administrator in Active Directory is a special account we aren't allowed to use.
      • Sometimes users' login names change (e.g. single to married or contractor to permanent employee).
      • Companies can use it when they merge divisions and one company needs to change their login names to match the company standard (e.g. mjones changes to m.jones or mike.jones).
      • It can also be used to mimic Active Directory login credentials: mjones or mjones@ptc.com
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        RichSPK10-MarbleAuthor
        10-Marble
        Aug 9, 2023 9:54 PM UTC

        That's a great answer!  Thanks!

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