vtvh0 (vtvh0) asked a question.
Okta username change/Name Changes
Does anyone have an outline of the process to change from firstname.lastname as Okta username to a number? Also, we are using email addresses as logins for many of our applications. Wondering what the impact is of changing that if a user's name has changed. If Lifecycle Management is not engaged, do we need to work with the application to make sure data is retained on the application side, and a new account isn't created because of the changed email on the Okta side.
Hi @vtvh0 (vtvh0),
Thank you for posting on the Okta community page!
In order to be able to change the username to a number you will first have to follow the bellow documentation and disable the format restrictions enabled by default for this attribute:
Additionally, even though provisioning is not enabled for your applications, the change of the username might affect the authentication for that user, if the attribute is used for authentications. Before making the change, I would recommend to verify the applications configurations to make sure that changing the value of the username will not affect the SSO. Also, if provisioning is not enabled for your applications, no updates will be pushed towards the app, therefore no new accounts will be created but, as mentioned above, SSO issues might occur depending on how your Okta applications have been configured.
I hope the above information is useful!
Hiya Tom!
I recently did some digging into this myself... because just like you, I've found that handling name changes with Okta's semi-default setup is quite painful. Not because of Okta, but because of everything downstream.
A few companies ago... all users had a unique numerical identifier that was their "core" login for all systems. That was in addition to the firstname.lastname@company.com email. I think that was really ideal because name changes then matter very little.
Updating a user recently who got married... I used her as a test case (setting expectations that it'd be a bit painful)... updated her name in BambooHR, let it flow down into Okta, and then updated her primary email. Salesforce was the main connection that broke, that I recall... but there were a few others as well.
I master my Okta profiles with BambooHR's data, including work email & names. That gives me the extra "kink" of falling subject to surprise updates if HR updates someone's information without saying anything. Okta would soak up those changes and at least a few tiles would instantly break for the user.
I know I don't have a solid answer for you here, but I hope my thoughts & experience with it helps in some way. Good luck.