Decommissioning of the "chemead" Active Directory

For many years the ChemE department has relied on Microsoft's Active Directory Service (chemead) to provision and restrict access to department IT resources. As the campus Active Directory (Andrew) has matured there has been less and less need to keep our services independent. Over the next several months we will be decommissioning chemead in favor of the Andrew system.

This project will have a large effect on the user experience for undergraduate students using the departmental computers labs. Staff/Faculty/Grad Students/Researchers will have only a minor change to their user experience. 

Changes that will affect all users

Users will no longer have a separate ChemE password. All department wide services will be accessed using your andrewID and Andrew password. This includes computer labs, the software share, Remote Desktop and printing and restricted web content. 

Changes that will affect computer lab users (Primarily undergrads, but also other users that occasionally use the computer lab)

In addition to using your Andrew account to access the computer lab the following changes will be occurring:

• Users will now have a mandatory profile that will govern some settings
• Primary user folders such as Desktop, Documents, Favorites, etc will be redirected to our Andrew space similar to University Computer Clusters.
• Lab printers (Both the Gary Powers Lab and Undergrad Lounge) will automatically be installed when you login
• Both labs are being upgraded to windows 10

**Changes to Remote Desktop are similar, RD to be upgraded to Server 2016 to provided a "Windows 10" like user experience

Changes that users of other services (Printers, Software Downloads, Websites, Sharepoint)

In addition to using your Andrew account, these changes will be applied

• Printers will be moved to a new server
• The windows webserver will be removed. Users of this service will have to choose Linux or the University CMS as options.
• Software Downloads will be moved to a different server and will eventually be via the ChemE-Computing website *only*
• Sharepoint will be upgrade to the 2016 version and migrated to new servers. Old content will be migrated to the new systems

Changes that will affect staff directly

Staff will use their AndrewID and Password to access their computers. In addition, the following changes are in affect

• Staff will have "local profiles" when using their office workstations
• Staff computers will be upgrade to windows 10
• Staff that use the computer lab will receive their "Andrew" profile only when using the computer lab
• Copiers will automatically be installed on staff machines

Other Changes that will affect some users

• We will no longer be able to create accounts. All users will need to have an Andrew ID. External affiliates will need a sponsored account
• We will not be able to assist with password resets. This will be done via University Computing at it-help@cmu.edu
• Service Accounts (Accounts user for various software packages will need to be created in advance. Sharepoint, PI System, etc) will need to be requested in advance

If you have any questions about this project, please contact the ChemE Helpdesk at cheme-computing@andrew.cmu.edu