Version 2010/12/30

Background:

You are probably here because you have received a machine generated mail about account expiry and have followed the link mentioned in that mail. Let us begin with a brief outline of how the automatic warning system works. All accounts in the LDAP system have an account expiry date. This is set at the time of your account creation as per your expected tenure at IITB. There are various auotmated procedures for extending your tenure by way of updating the expiry date (please see below) and can even be updated manually by submitting some valid DOCUMENT for ACCOUNT EXTENSION at CC office.

As the expiry date nears, automated mails are sent out every Monday morning alerting the user about the approaching expiry event. Roughly 4-5 such warnings are sent out (some users get irritated by such warnings but a majority of them want us to remind them) in order to inform the users and enable them to take action so as to get their tenure extended if needed. After these warnings the account (if not extended) continues to function for some time (i.e. the account enters a GRACE PERIOD) so that users can transfer their mails, and take backup of their files, etc.

Important Note:

• The expiry date of the accounts can be extended during the GRACE PERIOD too.
• After the GRACE PERIOD is over, the LDAP accounts will be frozen without any further warning (again, this is as per the feedback received from the users).
• If and when the account gets frozen, the mailbox contents and the filestore contents may get removed as the area may get allocated to the new users.

1. Upon completion of one's tenure at IITB (due to completion of degree, resignation/retirement or when they finally leave the institute,if on extension after retirement), normal LDAP services will continue to be available during SHIFTOVER (or GRACE) PERIOD (duration of this is dependent on user category; please refer to the table below). It is desirable that all users should, a few months before their above LDAP services are terminated, add a permanent, non-iitb email id to their signature in order to publicize the new email id and minimize loss of incoming emails. When leaving the institute (or latest at the end of SHIFTOVER PERIOD, users must ensure that they setup a FORWARDING ADDRESS (by visiting the URL http://camp.iitb.ac.in) so that all mails addressed to their LDAP account gets redirected to the new address.

User Category Grace Period Services During Grace Period Services after Grace Period Action to be taken for EXTENSION UG and PG student Upto three *months* after convocation Full Email Services (Including mailing lists membership) BIGHOME FILE STORAGE HOMEPAGES NEWSGROUP ACCESS Email in FORWARDINGONLY mode (i.e. No login permitted) NEWSGROUP access via http://varta.iitb.ac.in Security data maintained at ICARD office needs to be updated with your extended studentship validity period Research Scholars One *year* after the EXPIRY date in LDAP record --do-- --do-- --do-- Faculty Members and Permanent Staff --do-- --do-- --do-- Employee information data maintained at ASC needs to be updated with new expiry date Temporary Staff (non-project staff category) Upto three *months* after the EXPIRY date in LDAP record --do-- --do-- --do-- Temporary Staff (Project staff category) --do-- --do-- --do-- Employee information data maintained at IRCC needs to be updated with new expiry date 2. The following important points may please be noted: The FORWARDING ADDRESS will have to be setup by the users themselves. Pl donot ask CC staff to change it on your behalf. After the LDAP id is marked "FORWARDINGONLY" CC has no responsibility about the MAILBOX contents. Access to such mailboxes may be permitted on a "as-is" basis against payment of a fee (currently Rs 1000/-). After the GRACE PERIOD, LDAP records of the users will be examined and all LDAP ids who donot have FORWARDING ADDRESS will be terminated (hence the ids will be free for use by new users) with immediate effect. After the GRACE PERIOD is over, the account will be marked as FORWARDINGONLY and thereafter no login is possible on the webmail server and the BIGHOME server. Only NEWSGROUP access is permissible. The NEWSGROUP ACCESS profile of all such users will be monitored. All ids that show continuous no-access period of three months or more will be marked as “INACTIVE” and will be phased out. To avoid being treated as inactive, the FORWARDINGONLY account holders must ensure that they do not have inactivity periods of more than three months. 3. In case you feel that the expiry date of your in LDAP record is not set correctly, please take appropriate action to get your account revalidated as soon as possible (the possible procedures for updating the expiry dates are given below). If you have any further queries please come down to CC HELPDESK. CC website (http://www.cc.iitb.ac.in) has the details about the venue and the timing of HELPDESK sessions. PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB ANY CC STAFF OUTSIDE THE HELPDESK HOURS FOR THE PURPOSE OF UPDATING EXPIRY DATES. Project staff may please get their status updated in the IRCC database as we strictly follow that as the authentic source. Your status and tenure details will be fetched from IRCC and your LDAP record will be automatically updated accordingly. For faculty members or institute staff (both temporary and permanent category), we are totally dependent on ASC to update the expiry dates in the computerized database maintained by them. The details will be fetched from there and your status will be automatically updated accordingly. Hence your are advised to contact ASC and get your tenure updated there. In a few cases where the relevant database entries in IRCC or ASC are not updated but the user has a supporting document (such as appointment letter, or Identity card etc), the user may approach Computer Centre along with a photocopy of the document. The document must clearly show your present status and period over which it is valid. Please drop the photocopy of your EXTENSION DOCUMENTS in the drop box located in CC office. 4. If you are really about to leave IITB please do pay attention to the following: Register a forwarding address to a non-IITB email account so that your future emails get redirected to your new address. However, mails already accumulated in your mailbox will not be automagically moved to your new address. They have to be explicitly fetched via POP/IMAP to your new email account. This has to be done while account is still in **active** state. Once your account is inactive, the accumulated mails may not be available. Just like emails, the files in your BIGHOME directory may also be inaccessible after you leave. Pl arrange to take a backup of all your files well before the actual expiry date. Important: The Institute reserves the right to modify this policy in any manner it deems necessary, at any time.