Review the information in Managing Passwords by Using Password Policies, and meet the prerequisites in Prerequisites for Using Password Policies.
We recommend that you prepare your environment and turn on Universal Password so you can use all the features of Password Policies. However, if you are not ready to do so, there are some features you can use without deploying Universal Password.
For a list, see Feature Support for eDirectory 8.6.2 and eDirectory 8.7.3. It explains what you can use with Novell® eDirectoryTM 8.6.2, or with eDirectory 8.7.3 if you have Universal Password disabled.