ACCESS CI Bulk User Enrollment

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is bulk enrollment?
• How do I get started?
• Submit your request
• New user setup
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Introduction

Are you teaching a class that needs ACCESS accounts for dozens of users? Or are you preparing for a seminar and you need ACCESS IDs for your attendees before the event? If so, the ACCESS Bulk Enrollment service might be for you.

What is bulk enrollment?

"Bulk enrollment" means creating multiple new ACCESS CI user accounts. You provide us with a list of users, we create ACCESS CI accounts for those users, and we give you the resulting ACCESS IDs (a.k.a., usernames). Note that this is not an automated process. Your list of users will be processed by one of our administrators, so you must allow for sufficient lead time.

How do I get started?

You need to ensure you have the following.

• Sufficient lead time. You must submit your request for bulk user enrollment at least one week before you need the ACCESS IDs. If you need ACCESS IDs sooner than that, it's best for your users to register for an ACCESS ID on their own.
• User information. You need to supply the following attributes for each user:
  1. The user's first name, optional middle name, and last name.
     • If the user has a single name (e.g., Madonna, Cher, Prince), use that name for both first and last name.
     • Multibyte characters (e.g., Asian languages, Cyrillic, etc.) are not supported for ACCESS IDs. Please provide romanized name equivalents.
     • ACCESS RPs require ACCESS IDs to be at least 3 characters long. ACCESS IDs are formed using the first letter of the first name, the last name, and a disambiguating digit if needed. Please ensure the last name is at least 2 characters long.
  2. The user's Organization. This is typically their university, but could also be a company or research project. The Organization must exactly match (including uppercase letters) one of the registered ACCESS organizations. (This list is updated infrequently and may not reflect the list of Organizations currently in the ACCESS database.) If you cannot find an Organization for the user, you can request a new organization be added.
  3. The user's email address. This address will be used for password resets, so it must be valid. Institutional email addresses are preferred over social email addresses, i.e., addresses such as "user@gmail.com" should be used only if no other option exists.

Once you have information for all of your users, create a CSV file (with values separated by colons since University names may contain commas). Each line of this file will consist of the following data:

If the user doesn't have a middle name, you can omit that field.

Here's an example. The resulting file could be named something like "bulk-enrollment.csv".

Submit your request

Once you have created your .csv file, fill out this form with your information and upload the .csv file. You should receive email that an ACCESS Help Ticket has been created. Please allow up to one business week for your request to be processed. When completed, a file will be shared with you via a secure Box.com link. The file will be the same .csv file you submitted with the users' ACCESS IDs appended to each line.

New user setup

Once you have given your new users their ACCESS IDs, they must do several steps before they can log in with their ACCESS accounts. Please have your users visit ACCESS CI New User Account Setup and follow the steps outlined there.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. It seems like a lot of work to create the CSV file. Can't I just have my users register for ACCESS accounts on their own?  
   Certainly! In fact, we encourage users to register for an ACCESS account on their own so they have the choice of signing up with their existing university accounts, thus obviating the need to enroll in Duo for ACCESS. Bulk enrollment is useful if you need users' ACCESS IDs before an event. You will still have to add those users to your allocation, and the users will still need to review the ACCESS AUP, enroll in Duo, complete their ACCESS User Profile, etc.
2. I need 100 new ACCESS accounts created by tomorrow. Can you make an exception to the "one week" requirement?                 
   Bulk enrollment is a manual process. While there are scripts to handle the hard parts, the process requires multiple steps. We cannot guarantee that ACCESS administrators will have time to handle a one-day turnaround. In this case, it's best for your users to create their own accounts.
3. One of my users can't remember if they already have an ACCESS ID or not. Is this a problem?                 
   The bulk enrollment script first checks if the user's email address exists in the user registry. If so, the existing ACCESS ID is returned. The user can also try to reset their password. If the password reset email is received, then the user has an account.
4. I can't find the user's Organization in the list of ACCESS Organizations. But I'm pretty sure it's been added. How can I check?                 
   The list of ACCESS Organizations is updated on an as-needed basis and may be slightly out-of-sync with the ACCESS central database. Please open an ACCESS Help Ticket and request that the list be updated. If the list is up-to-date and the Organization is still not in the list, please request the organization be added.
5. The documentation at ACCESS CI New User Account Setup says that users must enroll in Duo for ACCESS. Is there a way users can log in with their university account instead?          
   Typically, new users can register for an ACCESS account using either an existing identity (such as a university account) or just an email address. For the sake of simplicity, bulk enrollment uses just an email address. Users can later link their university account with their ACCESS account so they can log on to ACCESS websites and HPC resources using their university identity.
6. Does bulk enrollment include assigning users to my ACCESS allocation?    
   No, bulk enrollment merely creates ACCESS IDs for the given users. Assigning them to your ACCESS allocation is an additional step which can be done at ACCESS Allocations.
7. What if my question isn't answered here?                 
   Open an ACCESS Help Ticket or contact support@access-ci.atlassian.net.
8. What if I can't log in to ACCESS to submit a ticket?     
   Open an ACCESS Help Ticket (no authentication required).