Special Purpose Account (SPA) FAQ

A knowledge base article about Special Purpose Account (SPA) FAQ provided by the UC Berkeley IT Service Hub - Knowledge Portal

What is a Special Purpose Account (SPA)?

Special Purpose Accounts (SPAs) are intended for collaboration and sharing. A SPA is a CalNet IDs. It can have a bConnected Google address and a Box account. SPAs, their contents/data, and the shared email account are owned by the institution and the primary department of the employee who creates the SPA at the time the SPA is created.

Who owns a SPA?

SPAs, their contents/data, and the shared email account are owned by the institution and the primary department (at the time the SPA is created) of the employee who creates the SPA.

Department managers have the authority to modify membership and/or disable a SPA at any time, and manage the content of the account. Department managers can email calnet-admin@berkeley.edu to transfer SPAs to different departments or modify SPA membership.

SPA email accounts will automatically be disabled if there are no active employees in the SPA's direct membership.

How do I create a SPA, or manage the members of an existing SPA?

SPAs can be managed via the SPA Admin App. You can manage any SPA of which you are a Direct Member via the admin app.

How do I share my SPA?

There are two ways to share a SPA:

You can add Direct Members. Direct Members have more control and access to the SPA. See Managing SPA Membership in CalGroups
Alternately, you can delegate access to a SPA-affiliated bMail account. Users with delegated access can only use the affiliated bMail account. See Managing SPA-affiliated Departmental bMail Accounts

Which one should you use?

See CalNet SPA Direct Member vs. Delegated Access for more information.

What can I do with my SPA?

SPAs are allowed access to authorized applications such as the bConnected suite of services, the bConnected Manage Your Account app, and the CalNet Manage My Keys app.

How can I find the UID of my SPA account?

SPA owners/Direct Members can find their SPA's UID using the following steps. This is helpful for technologists who need a SPA’s UID to add it to an application, among other uses.

Go to calgroups.berkeley.edu
Next, search for spa-name
There will be 2 results: one is a group, and one is an account
The account will say SP_Account in most cases
Click on SP_Account-name, and the Unique ID (UID) will be listed at the top

How does a SPA show up in other systems?

Your CalNet SPA will display a slightly different name in bMail and in other systems. In Box, for example, the SPA name is displayed, followed by SP_Account. It does not contain "@berkeley.edu." The bMail address portion appears only in bMail. See the examples below:

SPA Name Display: Box

SPA Name Display on Box

Spa Name Display: bMail

SPA Name Display on bMail

How do I create a bConnected Google Account for use with my SPA?

Instructions for creating a bConnected Google Account for use with your SPA can be found here at Managing SPA-Affiliated bMail Accounts

What levels of access / permissions are available for a SPA?

There are two types of roles/access levels for a SPA. The first is direct member access, the second is delegated access.

Members of a SPA can do the following:

Log directly into the SPA (This allows the use of bCal, bDrive, Box, etc.)
Delegate access to the SPA-affiliated bConnected Google account
Add/remove direct members to the SPA
Use all email related features for the SPA

Delegates of a SPA can do the following:

Use all email related features for the SPA

Note: When sending email from a SPA as a delegate, recipients will see “This email sent on behalf of…”

Please note that only staff and affiliate employees qualify as direct members of SPAs, students are ineligible unless they are also employees.

If you need assistance determining what type of access should be granted, please contact the CSS-IT Service Desk at itcsshelp@berkeley.edu, or by calling 510-664-9000, Option 1

How do I login directly to a SPA?

Click here for Instructions for logging directly into a SPA

How do I delegate access to a SPA?

First, log directly in to the SPA, using the instructions above.

Next, follow the instructions for delegating access to an account

How do SPAs appear in LDAP?

Find information on SPAs and LDAP at: People OU - SPA LDAP Attributes

Can I use a CalNet SPA in Active Directory (AD)?

No.

Can I create a mailing list with the same name as a SPA?

Yes! For more information, please visit this knowledge base article.

Can I add a CalNet SPA to a Mailing List?

Yes! For more information, please visit this knowledge base article.

How Do I Create a SPA Admin Group?

Creating an admin access group in your CalGroups folder space can help you manage SPA membership easily. Add the admin access group to your SPAs, instead of individual users, and then you only need to add or remove a user from the admin group to impact their membership across all of your SPAs.

An example from a campus department: one person was responsible for creating hundreds of SPAs. Their individual account was in each SPA access group (along with the members who actually used the SPA). Of course, the admin didn’t really need to see all those SPAs in their list given that the SPA was really for the other people. Adding the admin access group allows the creator of the SPA to remove themselves.

Another benefit to using a SPA admin group -- you prevent the SPA-affiliated bMail account from getting canceled if there are no longer any direct members in the group. This is super helpful when there is turnover in the department. Overall, using an admin access group is a more department-centric POV rather than an individual POV.

For detailed steps on how to create a SPA admin group, please visit this knowledge base article.

Can I delete a SPA?

SPAs cannot be deleted at this time. If you want to stop using a SPA and have us delete it in the future, do the following:

Remove delegated access to affiliated bMail account (if applicable)
Remove all direct members of the SPA
Email calnet-admin@berkeley.edu and request that we add it to the list of SPAs for deletion in the future.
Email bconnected@berkeley.edu and request that the affiliated bMail account be deleted (if applicable)

Can I share a SPA Calendar?

To share your calendar with other Direct Members, contact bconnected@berkeley.edu. It is not possible to share a Calendar with a delegated access role.

Can I set up a bMail alias for a SPA?

You can set up an alias for a SPA-affiliated bMail account by logging in as the SPA and clicking on the accounts link and then Aliases at: https://mybconnected.berkeley.edu/my/account/

What is the return address when an email is sent by a direct member of a SPA?

When you send email by logging in to the SPA as a Direct Member, the return address is the SPA bMail Account name. As a user with Delegated Access, when you access the SPA via your own bMail account and send email, the return address is the SPA bMail Account name followed by the notation: "(sent by you@berkeley.edu)."

I tried to create a new SPA but got an "Application Error."

If you tried to create a new SPA but got an "Application Error," first log in to mycalnet.berkeley.edu to review your active affiliations and make sure you are currently an employee. Only employees can create a SPA. If you are a current employee and get this error, please email calnet-admin@berkeley.edu to report the error.

How do I send an email as a SPA, and not using my delegated access to the SPA?

In order to send an email as the SPA, instead of using your delegated access, please log in to bMail as your SPA. Using this technique, you will be able to send emails from SPA@berkeley.edu, instead of SPA@berkeley.edu (sent by USER@berkeley.edu).

How do I change the display name of my SPA?

For instrutions to update the display name of your SPA, see this knowledge base article.

When you search in CalGroups for a SPA, you can now see the account as well as the SPA group. Formerly, you were only able to see the group.

Any user in CalGroups can see a SPA. SPA groups have more restrictions. You can only see the group if you are in the group. In the screenshot below, search results for “calnet-coordinator” return both the group- and the SP_Account, because the user doing the search is a member of the SPA group.

Examples of Access-related Problems

Question:

I see that I can log in by typing "+calnetid" and my passphrase, and then I see a drop down menu of a variety of SPAs I have access to. Are these delegated accounts or are they the ones I own? There is an account I am delegated (sampleaccount@berkeley.edu) that doesn't come up in the list, but when I'm in my own email, I see it as a delegated account. Just wondering how this works!

Answer:

The list of accounts you see when you log in as "+calnetid" are the SPAs of which you are a Direct Member. You will not see SPAs for which you only have Delegated Access in this list. You can see a list of accounts you have Delegated Access to by clicking the round person icon (often your photo) at the top right of your bMail screen. You must delegate the SPA accounts to yourself in order to see them in this list.

Question:

Is there an 'easy' way to change ownership of a SPA CalNet ID to another person? Is there a difference between "owner" and "authorizer"?

Answer:

Since the department owns the SPA, you simply need to add another Direct Member to the SPA to change the "functional owner." Each Direct Member of the SPA has the ability to add and remove other members.

Contact Us

To create SPAs and manage membership, use the Special Purpose Accounts Admin App.

If you have any questions regarding SPAs, contact itcsshelp@berkeley.edu.