[rhn-users] Recent and Upcoming RHN Account Policy Changes

[Máirín Duffy]

(this mail also went out to the rhn-satellite-users list)

Hi folks,

John and Dave were correct in their observations about the recent RHN
account policy changes [1] - we should announce these changes ahead of
time to give customers both a chance to give us some feedback and to
absorb these changes into their process. I apologize that this was not
the case.

The user account changes are part of a much larger upcoming set of
improvements in our account system across all customer-facing services,
not just RHN. These were initiated in part due to customer feedback
about how our account systems work.

The single email address per account policy change in particular is part
of an improvement to support single sign on accounts; right now you may
have multiple accounts to access various Red Hat applications such as
RHN, the Red Hat Store, customer service & support, Issue Tracker, etc.
We are working to consolidate these systems under a single account
system so you'll only need one account to access these different
applications.

Another upcoming improvement related to this account policy change is a
multi-organizational account management. Multi-organizational management
will allow one Red Hat account to have 'sub-accounts.' So, for example,
if you've 100 purchased RHEL AS subscriptions for your servers and 100
RHEL WS subscriptions for your workstations, you'll want to make sure
that folks who should be running RHEL WS do not have access to RHEL AS
and cannot access subscriptions from your server group. With these
upcoming changes, you'll be able to split your account into different
'organizations', one that only has access to a particular set of RHEL WS
subscriptions. Then you can create accounts in the WS organization for
those users who you only want to have access to those WS subscriptions.
Basically, this new account system will let you have better control over
what subscriptions and systems users in your organization can access in RHN.

If you are an existing customer with multiple accounts associated with a
single email address, you will be contacted by Red Hat Customer Service
in the coming months. Our customer service folks will help you to
consolidate your accounts and help you set them up in a way that will
work with your organization's processes and policies, so that instead of
needing multiple disparate accounts to manage your software 
subscriptions, you'll have one account with subaccounts under it that
have particular subscriptions assigned to them.

One thing to note is that all of these account changes only apply to 
hosted Red Hat services. So if you are a Satellite customer, these 
account changes are not related to the Satellite account system. They 
will only apply to your rhn.redhat.com account. Specifically, the 
multi-organizational management capabilities, single-sign on, and 
account policy changes I mentioned only apply to redhat.com accounts and 
do not apply to Satellite.

I apologize again that the recent account policy change came
unannounced. I hope that as more pieces of the larger improvements roll
out in the upcoming months, their benefits will become more clear. I
also anticipate that they will improve your experience with Red Hat
Network as well as other Red Hat services.

If the new email address policy disrupts your organization's ability to
work with Red Hat Network (or any other Red Hat service) I encourage you
to contact customer service [2] to see if some kind of temporary 
solution for your situation can be worked out.

Thanks for bringing this issue up and for your patience as we grow and
improve our services.

Thanks,
~m

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhn-users/2007-January/msg00018.html
[2] https://www.redhat.com/about/contact/dir/#custservice or 
https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/