Active Directory Domain Consolidation for Ferris Students FAQ

Active Directory (AD) is a directory service that Microsoft developed for Windows domain networks. It is where all Ferris State University Faculty, Staff, and Student accounts are maintained and granted access to network shared files and folders. Your AD account is what is used to access most applications provided by the University, like MyFSU and Blackboard.

In 2013 IT Services migrated our directory services from a different vendor to Microsoft Active Directory. At that time of the migration, it was decided that employees and students exist in two separate active directory environments. After a few years and several discussions with leadership and Microsoft, it was decided that our Active Directory environment would function much more efficiently and effectively if all AD accounts (faculty, staff, and students) existed in a single environment. By moving all AD accounts into a single environment, applications using these accounts will function more efficiently and accounts can be managed more effectively.

The consolidation is set to take place the week of May 7th 2018 with the actual migration of the student accounts happening on May 9th 2018. During this time all student AD accounts will be moved to the existing Ferris.local domain from the Student.local domain.

Ferris State University student accounts are the only accounts that will be affected by this consolidation. All passwords for students will move with the account and will not need to be reset. Also, if students have registered their third-party email address in our password reset system, this will also transfer over without having to be setup. The biggest impact will be for student employees that use their own account to log in/out of work computers. Because student accounts will be moving to a new domain, when the student employee logs into a computer, a new profile on that computer will be generated and access to that old profile will not be available due to rights on the computer for these new accounts.

Student employees – Prior to the week of May 7th, you will want to make sure that any work related files are saved to a network location or Microsoft OneDrive location that will be accessible once the new profile is created on the computer. Also, make note of any network drives that are used as part of your job as a student employee. These network drives may be letters: H:, J:, K:, L:, M:, etc. Some of these drives may need to be manually connected after the new profile is created. You will also want to make note of any applications that you use specifically for the work that you do. The application will remain on the computer, but access to the application may not exist with the new profile. Some software may need to be configured to work with the new profile as well. If you experience any issues after logging into your work computer after the account move on May 9th, please contact the IT Solution Center for assistance.

Student supervisor employees – Prior to the week of May 7th, you will want to make sure that your student employees are aware of the upcoming change. As part of this awareness, be sure that the student employees have saved all necessary work to a network folder or Microsoft OneDrive folder that you have directed them to do so. These locations will be available to the student employees from whatever work computer they log into with their newly migrated account. Some applications may have to be configured on the newly created profile and some network file shares may need to be re-mapped for them to access the files needed. If they are experiencing any issues with their work computer or account after the move on May 9th, please contact the IT Solution for assistance.

Depending on if you log into certain systems or not, you will only need to provide your username and password to log into these applications, whereas it used to be that sometimes you had to enter Student_AD\username or [email protected]. Because all AD accounts exists in a single domain, applications and systems that use your AD account to authenticate will only need to look in one domain rather than two. Login times should not be affected.