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Contents 
Contact Us Division of Personnel Security 
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This is the January 14, 2009 issue of the DPSAC NEWS NED Distress Gives Administrative Community a Headache As many of our readers are aware, over the past couple of weeks the NED system has been plagued with a string of system performance issues ranging from slow operations to denial of access, prompting the NED team to issue ‘NED in Distress’ alerts to the administrative community. The NED team has been working tirelessly to resolve these issues and has been communicating with the administrative community via e-mail to make sure everyone is apprised of the problems and the steps being taken to find solutions. In an e-mail to NED users on Monday, January 5, NED Project Manager Jeff Erickson reported that his team and the software vendor discovered a ‘bug’ in the underlying software that ”causes the system to take an inordinate amount of time to display the list of tasks in the NED Inbox.” Erickson reported that the NED Team was also working on an upgrade to the NED database environment, since “the current database environment simply can’t keep up with the demands of the new system.” Revised Instructions for Running a Task in NED 2.0 On January 6, the NED team alerted the NED User Community that a new ‘landing page’ had been developed, tested and installed to serve as a temporary workaround to the problem. NED users will see the Landing Page in place of the NED Inbox when they log in, complete a task or cancel an action. The advisory states, “To view your list of tasks, just click on the Inbox link in the menu. IMPORTANT: Please only go to your Inbox when necessary to run a task, e.g., initiate a badge renewal, approve an update, sponsor a badge, etc. Also, please click on the Inbox link only once. Depending on the load on the system it can take 20-30 seconds—and sometimes more—to display the task list. Clicking the link multiple times will *NOT* make the list appear faster, and can actually slow things down.” The e-mail advisory concludes, "This fix will reduce the load on the system by bypassing the bug that is slowing everything down." On January 8, the NED team sent out another message to let users know that they had installed a vendor ‘hotfix’ that appears to have solved the system access problem. The NED team reports that the system is no longer crashing but unfortunately performance remains unacceptably slow. The NED team is continuing to make adjustments to speed up system performance. Stay tuned. Replacing Broken Badges … An Update Just one visit to the Enrollment Center is all it takes to replace a broken badge – as long as the individual can present the physical pieces of the badge to the ACCESS CONTROL SPECIALIST in the Enrollment Center. Employees, contractors and affiliates working on the Bethesda campus or at nearby NIH facilities* should bring their broken badges to the DPSAC Badge Enrollment Center in Bldg. 31, Rm. 1B03 for replacement. No appointment is required. If the badge has not expired and can be authenticated, Access Control will issue the individual a new badge. The expiration date on the new badge will be the same as the one on the broken badge. Remember, the Access Control Specialist must be able to take possession of the broken badge in order to replace the badge on the spot. Otherwise, the individual will need to follow the policies for replacing lost or stolen id badges (see Replacing Lost/Stolen ID Badges below). *Individuals working at satellite facilities will want to check with the Badge Enrollment Center serving their location to confirm where to bring their broken badges and obtain a replacement. Replacing Lost/Stolen ID Badges Report lost/stolen ID Badges to Access Control (301-451-4766) and to your Administrative Officer (AO). Your AO will need to enter the necessary information into the NIH Enterprise Directory (NED 2.0) to authorize a replacement ID badge. Those who have not yet undergone the PIV process will need to schedule an appointment with Personnel Security to be fingerprinted and have their background investigation initiated. Adjusting the Default Badge Expiration Date A person’s badge expiration date depends on their position classification. Since the majority of positions at the NIH will merit a 5-year expiration period for their ID Badge, NED defaults to 5-years for all positions. However, some positions will need to be changed. For example, Summer Student badges should expire no later than September 30. Access Control Specialists are seeing incorrect expiration dates for Summer Students in Continuum. It is the responsibility of the AO to modify the Expiration Date for these individuals, otherwise Access Control has to manually re-set the date in Continuum. New “Hands On” NED Classes Announced for First Quarter of 2009 The NED Team and the HSPD-12 Program Office have added several NED 2.0 “hands on” classes to the fall training schedule. Click here to view the schedule of available classes. To register for a class, please e-mail Dan Shumate in the HSPD-12 Program Office and let him know which session you would like to attend. The courses are free and handout materials will be provided. You are encouraged to share this information with other NED users in your IC. • AOs in the Role of PIV Sponsor Must Complete HHS PIV Sponsor Training AOs who will be sponsoring individuals for the HHS ID Badge (PIV Card) and have not completed the mandatory HHS PIV Sponsor training should complete the Sponsor Training. To do this, click on the following link: http://intranet.hhs.gov/pivcard/training/sponsor/. Once you have completed the training module, please fax or mail the signed and dated training certificate to: HSPD-12 Program Office • DPSAC offers regular extended evening hours (5pm – 8pm) on Wednesdays. If you have questions or concerns, you can contact DPSAC at 301-402-9755 or orspersonnelsecurity@mail.nih.gov. • http://idbadge.nih.gov was a popular website in 2008, recording nearly 20,000 visitors and over 150,000 page views for the year! You may want to bookmark this site to stay current on the implementation of HSPD-12 and the imminent launch of the new HHS ID Badge (PIV Card) at NIH. Remember, all past issues of DPSAC News are posted on the site. Also, there’s a helpful Training section that offers modules for the various Administrative roles (Sponsor, Registrar, Issuer, etc), tutorials and a ‘Sandbox’ for NED users, and a link to NED ‘Training on Demand.' Q: If someone leaves the NIH, what do you do with their badge? A: Once the individual is deactivated in NED, please send their badge directly to your local badging office via interoffice mail or courier, attention: Access Control. A biweekly e-newsletter from the Office of Research Services, Division of Personnel Security and Access Control (ORS/DPSAC) to keep you informed as NIH rolls out "Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12" (HSPD-12) establishing a common identification standard to better safeguard NIH and its workforce. |
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