What is the Institutional Identifier (IID)?

Many services hosted in the cloud set your account name as your email address. Unfortunately, this assumption runs into problems if your email address ever changes. In order to address this issue with cloud services being used by the university, an Institutional Identifier (IID) is issued. The IID uses your UT EID (which should never change) and places it in the format of an email address for use with cloud service providers.

The IID exists for many EID holders in the format <UT EID>@eid.utexas.edu. Email sent to this address will be automatically forwarded to the email address you have on record tied to your UT EID.

When will I use the Institutional Identifier (IID)?

In many cases, the Institutional Identifier (IID) will be used for you. For example, when you sign into Box with your UT EID and EID password, mechanisms behind the scenes use your IID to sign into Box so that you won’t have to.

In some cases, where cloud services do not provide a single sign-on using your UT EID (such as the Box mobile application), you will need to authenticate using your IID and your EID password.

What if I don’t want to use the Institutional Identifier (IID)?

The Institutional Identifier (IID) has been created in order to allow the university to use cloud-based services in furthering its educational mission. As such, you may not opt out of the IID.

The Institutional Identifier for Guest EIDs

In some cases, it may be necessary for a guest EID to receive an institutional identifier. Under certain circumstances, this may be obtained by requesting the IID entitlement be added to the EID.

Two examples of use cases for the IID entitlement on a guest EID are:

• A UT Austin researcher is collaborating with a non-UT researcher using files on Box. The EID for the non-UT researcher may be eligible for an IID entitlement.
• A department wishes to set up a departmental box account for shared storage. This will be tied to a departmentally-managed EID whose email address is a group list for the department.

In order to request an IID entitlement, the following preconditions must be met.

1. Requests for the IID entitlement must come from an employee of UT Austin who is not primarily a student and not an employee by virtue of a privilege assigned by their University Affiliate status.
2. The IID will only be issued for EIDs which are otherwise ineligible for the University Affiliate affiliation.
3. The EID receiving the IID entitlement must have a valid, working email address associated with it.

The IID entitlement will expire one year after provisioning.

If those preconditions are met, requests for the IID entitlement may be sent to eidteam@utlists.utexas.edu.