Austin Active Directory
Austin Active Directory (Austin AD) provides the authentication and systems management infrastructure for computing resources in participating Colleges, Schools and Units (CSU's), students, faculty, staff and affiliates.
Austin Active Directory (Austin AD) provides the authentication infrastructure and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for many critical campus services including Office365, Austin Disk, and UT-Virtualization. Austin AD also controls access and authorization for 25,000 computing resources in participating Colleges, Schools and Units (CSUs) and 600,000 students, faculty, staff and affiliates.
- Departments can rely on EID credentials to grant access to their systems instead of creating a separate set of login names and the infrastructure to support it
- Users can access Austin Disk, Austin Exchange Email Service (AEMS) and other services with a single login and password
- Departmental IT staff can manage all Windows computers from a central point through the use of Group Policy Objects (GPOs)
- Departments can make use of Austin Active Directory and avoid making large hardware, software, and staff investments to establish a departmental directory service
Austin Active Directory is available at no cost to participating departments.
Intended users
Austin Active Directory can be used by students, faculty and staff who are registered users of the university's computing and Web services. Campus departments may also use this service to facilitate the adoption of Windows servers and desktop computers.
Supported computing environment
The minimum recommended operating system requirements for using AD are:
Windows Server: Windows Server 2008 R2
Macintosh Desktop: Mac OS 10.8
Technical support
Both Tier 1 and Tier 2 technical support is available during normal business hours. Routine requests are typically addressed within one business day.
Tier 1
End users should start with Tier 1 technical support. Any user can call the UT Service Desk at 512-475-9400. Users with a departmental Technical Support Contact (TSC) should contact that individual.
Tier 2
Departmental support staff and the UT Service Desk may escalate issues to Tier 2.
Maintenance
ITS will notify customers about both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance using the Alerts and Outages page of service availability and service delivery issues. Services may not be available during the maintenance periods.
Scheduled maintenance occurs during the seven days following the second Tuesday of the month. To the maximum extent possible, installation of service, application, and security updates will be performed during scheduled maintenance.
Unscheduled maintenance tasks that require service downtime will be announced as soon as possible on the Alerts and Outages page.
Change notification: Austin Active Directory administrators are required to subscribe to the ad-personnel@utlists.utexas.edu mailing list. This list serves as the primary communication method on matters concerning Austin Active Directory management.
User responsibilities
Subscribers (users) of the service and identified owners/administrators agree to be aware of and adhere to the university's Acceptable Use Policy.
In addition, AD users agree to:
- Provide ITS with contact information for departmental TSC through your ITS contact, and notify ITS of changes.
- Subscribe to the ad-personnel list (ad-personnel@utlists.utexas.edu). This is the primary means that ITS communicates changes to department TSC personnel.
- Designate at least one secondary TSC for each department.
- Be familiar with the online documentation.
- Provide critical information to ITS in a timely manner when requested for purposes of resolving subscriber issues.
Departments can request their own Department OU in Active Directory, allowing them to create and manage their computers, groups, group policy objects, and administrative accounts.
- Departments can rely on EID credentials to grant access to their systems instead of creating a separate set of login names and the infrastructure to support it
- Users can access Austin Disk, Austin Exchange Email Service (AEMS) and other services with a single login and password
- Departmental IT staff can manage all Windows computers from a central point through the use of Group Policy Objects (GPOs)
- Departments can make use of Austin Active Directory and avoid making large hardware, software, and staff investments to establish a departmental directory service
Austin Active Directory is available at no cost to participating departments.
Intended users
Austin Active Directory can be used by students, faculty and staff who are registered users of the university's computing and Web services. Campus departments may also use this service to facilitate the adoption of Windows servers and desktop computers.
Supported computing environment
The minimum recommended operating system requirements for using AD are:
Windows Server: Windows Server 2008 R2
Macintosh Desktop: Mac OS 10.8
Technical support
Both Tier 1 and Tier 2 technical support is available during normal business hours. Routine requests are typically addressed within one business day.
Tier 1
End users should start with Tier 1 technical support. Any user can call the UT Service Desk at 512-475-9400. Users with a departmental Technical Support Contact (TSC) should contact that individual.
Tier 2
Departmental support staff and the UT Service Desk may escalate issues to Tier 2.
Maintenance
ITS will notify customers about both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance using the Alerts and Outages page of service availability and service delivery issues. Services may not be available during the maintenance periods.
Scheduled maintenance occurs during the seven days following the second Tuesday of the month. To the maximum extent possible, installation of service, application, and security updates will be performed during scheduled maintenance.
Unscheduled maintenance tasks that require service downtime will be announced as soon as possible on the Alerts and Outages page.
Change notification: Austin Active Directory administrators are required to subscribe to the ad-personnel@utlists.utexas.edu mailing list. This list serves as the primary communication method on matters concerning Austin Active Directory management.
User responsibilities
Subscribers (users) of the service and identified owners/administrators agree to be aware of and adhere to the university's Acceptable Use Policy.
In addition, AD users agree to:
- Provide ITS with contact information for departmental TSC through your ITS contact, and notify ITS of changes.
- Subscribe to the ad-personnel list (ad-personnel@utlists.utexas.edu). This is the primary means that ITS communicates changes to department TSC personnel.
- Designate at least one secondary TSC for each department.
- Be familiar with the online documentation.
- Provide critical information to ITS in a timely manner when requested for purposes of resolving subscriber issues.