To balance ease of use with industry best practices for usernames, Jamf recommends one of the following username formats:
- First initial and last name
- First name, a separator character such as a period or underscore, and last name
- A combination of the name with a unique identifier that is not all or part of a Social Security number
- A unique identifier, such as an employee ID or student ID, that is not all or part of a Social Security number
If the source system, such as an SIS or HRMS, generates a username that the user already knows, you can use that username.
Identity Hub automatically appends an incrementing counter to usernames that conflict. For example, if two users are named John Smith, Identity Hub generates jsmith and jsmith1.
When the username is formulaic and unique, such as when it contains an ID number, you can provide generic instructions to all users.
Keep usernames simple enough for users to remember. Overly complex usernames can cause frustration.
Identity Hub does not automatically rename accounts as part of the normal provisioning process. Consider this if you map a username from the source system and that value can change, because the changed value does not automatically flow to existing users in target systems.