Setting a new password

Depending on the password policy configuration for the IBM® Flex System Manager management software, the management software might require that new passwords meet certain criteria to ensure system security.

The following list of password criteria apply only when the security policy is set to Secure, or when the security policy is set to Legacy and the password policy setting Enable the server to check for password quality on the Configure password policy window is selected.

A new password must comply with the password settings selected for the management software password policy. See Password policy settings for more information about the password settings that can be configured in the Configure password policy window.

A new password must also comply with the following rules:

• A password must contain at least 8 characters
• A password must have at least two characters that are different from the previous password
• A password cannot be the same as, or the reverse of, the associated user ID
• A password cannot contain more than three of the same consecutive characters
• A password must contain at least three of the following types of characters:
  • one lower case alphabetical character
  • one upper case alphabetical character
  • one numeric character
  • one special character or symbol (non-numeric and non-alphabetical character)
    Important: If you use any of the following characters in a password that you create in the command-line interface, you must add \ (backslash) in front of each special character: @, $, #, !, &, (, ), ’. If you do not use the backslash with each of these characters, an error occurs or an unexpected password value is stored in the management software.

    The following characters can cause conflicts with other components in the system and should not be used: ", |, <, >, and any whitespace character such as space or tab.