Cisco Pulse Administrator Guide, Release 1.0.5

Customizing and Maintaining Cisco Pulse Using the Command-Line Interface

Note This topic is intended for the network or system administrator who can use these command-line interface (CLI) features to customize and maintain Cisco Pulse.

This topic describes how to perform these customization and maintenance tasks using the CLI:

•Customizing the Pulse Locator Search Results Display

•Stopping and Restarting the Pulse Collect Appliances

•Stopping and Restarting the Pulse Connect Appliance

•Updating Network Information

•Changing the Management Service Username and Password

•Changing the ncpadmin Password

Customizing the Pulse Locator Search Results Display

By default, the Pulse Locator search results page displays up to 10 rows. If desired, a user can click a drop-down arrow to change the number of rows displayed to 25, 50, or 100.

You can customize these parameters of the Pulse Locator search results display:

•The number of values (one through four) that display in the drop-down menu.

•The default number of rows displayed per page.

For example, you can customize the drop-down menu in the Pulse Locator search results to display two values, 10 and 25, with 25 specified as the default. To do so, you can access the custom.properties file at this location on the Pulse Connect Appliance:

TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ncpui/WEB-INF/classes

This excerpt from the custom.properties file shows the default settings of the Pulse Locator search results display parameters:

...

## Results per page

## Any value may be set as the default

## results.per.page.a through c may be left empty

results.per.page.default=10

results.per.page.a=25

results.per.page.b=50

results.per.page.c=100

...

To change the display parameters to two values in the drop-down menu, for example, 10 and 25, with 25 as the default, open the custom.properties file using a text editor, then change the parameters as shown:

...

results.per.page.default=25

results.per.page.a=10

results.per.page.b=

results.per.page.c=

...

Figure 9-1 shows the results of this sample configuration.

Figure 9-1 Sample Pulse Locator Search Results—Customized Display

Note Cisco Pulse does not restrict the number of rows displayed per page. However, we recommend a maximum of 30 rows per page to minimize the amount of scrolling a user must do to view all rows in the Pulse Locator search results.

Stopping and Restarting the Pulse Collect Appliances

Note This topic is intended for the system administrator.

After installing the application software on the Pulse Collect Appliances, you started the application using the service collect start command.

When needed, you can use these additional commands to stop and restart the application on the Pulse Collect Appliances:

•service collect stop command—Stops the application on the Pulse Collect Appliance.

•service collect restart command—Restarts the application on the Pulse Collect Appliance.

Stopping and Restarting the Pulse Connect Appliance

Note This topic is intended for the system administrator.

After installing the application software on the Pulse Connect Appliance, you started the application using the service connect start command.

When needed, you can use these additional commands to stop and restart the application on the Pulse Connect Appliance:

•service connect stop command—Stops the application on the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•service connect restart command—Restarts the application on the Pulse Connect Appliance.

Updating Network Information

Note This topic is intended for the network administrator.

You initially configured this network information for each Pulse Appliance using the Setup wizard:

•Host name

•IP address (static)

•Subnet mask

•Gateway address

•IP addresses of primary and secondary DNS servers

If needed, you can update any of this information using the network_config utility, which you can invoke from any location in the command-line interface (CLI).

To run the utility, you can establish a console port session with the appliance, or a Secure Shell (SSH) session between a UNIX- or Microsoft Windows-based management station and the appliance. (If your management station runs Microsoft Windows, you must run an SSH client.)

You must log into the appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password. (If you do not already have this login information, you can get it from the network administrator.)

Note As a security measure, you cannot log into the Pulse Appliances directly as root. You must first log into the appliances using the system administrator username and password, then the root password.

Before You Begin

You need this information:

•System administrator username and password for the appliance.

•Root password for the appliance.

•New network information, for example, new IP address of the appliance.

Procedure

To update network information for an appliance:

Note Although you can also establish a console port session with an appliance, or an SSH session from a Microsoft Windows workstation running an SSH client, for the sake of providing a sample scenario, this procedure assumes an SSH session established from a UNIX management station.

Step 1 Initiate an SSH session from a management station to the appliance using this command syntax:

ssh username@ip-or-host address

or

ssh ip-or-host address -l username

where:

username = System administrator username

ip-or-host address = IP address or host name of the appliance

For example:

ssh admin@10.1.0.11

or

ssh 10.1.0.11 -l admin

Step 2 When prompted, enter the system administrator password provided by the network administrator:

Step 3 Log into the appliance as root using this command syntax:

[admin@mylocalhost ~]$ su -

Step 4 When prompted, enter the root password provided by the network administrator.

Step 5 After you have successfully logged in, updated the network information using this command syntax from any location:

network_config -n host-name -a ip-address -m mask -g gateway -p primary-dns -s secondary-dns

where

host-name = Host name of the appliance, which must be in host-name.domain-name format, for example, sj1.mycompanyname.com.

address = IP address of the appliance.

mask = Subnet mask of the appliance.

gateway = Gateway address for the appliance.

primary-dns = IP address of the primary DNS server.

secondary-dns = IP address of the secondary DNS server.

When using this syntax, you must specify at least one option, or any combination of the options as needed.

For example, if you need to update the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address for an appliance, enter this command:

network_config -a 10.1.0.25 -m 255.255.255.0 -g 10.1.0.1

Changing the Management Service Username and Password

Note This topic is intended for the system administrator.

During the installation of application software, you created a management service username and password for the Pulse Collect and Connect Appliances. This login information enables the Pulse Collect and Connect Appliances to communicate over HTTPS to authenticate each other.

We recommend changing this username and password on each appliance at regular intervals for security purposes. You can change this username and password using the passwd_mgmtsvc utility, which resides in the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory on each appliance.

Note All Pulse Appliances must have the same management service username and password. Therefore, if you change this username and password for the Pulse Connect Appliance, you must make the same changes to the username and password on the Pulse Collect Appliances or vice versa.

Note After changing the username and password on a Pulse Collect or Connect Appliance, you must restart the application on the appliance. Therefore, when performing this update, you must plan accordingly for the resulting interruption of services on the appliance.

To run the utility, you can establish a console port session with the appliance, or a Secure Shell (SSH) session between a UNIX- or Microsoft Windows-based management station and the appliance. (If your management station runs Microsoft Windows, you must run an SSH client.)

You must log into the appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password. (If you do not already have this login information, you can get it from the network administrator.)

Note As a security measure, you cannot log into the Pulse Appliances directly as root. You must first log into the appliances using the system administrator username and password, then the root password.

Then, you can go to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory, where you can invoke the utility.

Before You Begin

When you change the username and password, you need this information:

•System administrator username and password for the appliance.

•Root password for the appliance.

Procedure

To change the management service username and password for an appliance:

Note Although you can also establish a console port session with an appliance, or an SSH session from a Microsoft Windows workstation running an SSH client, for the sake of providing a sample scenario, this procedure assumes an SSH session established from a UNIX management station.

Step 1 Initiate an SSH session from a management station to the appliance using this command syntax:

ssh username@ip-or-host address

or

ssh ip-or-host address -l username

where:

username = System administrator username

ip-or-host address = IP address or host name of the appliance

For example:

ssh admin@10.1.0.11

or

ssh 10.1.0.11 -l admin

Step 2 When prompted, enter the system administrator password provided by the network administrator:

Step 3 Log into the appliance as root using this command syntax:

[admin@mylocalhost ~]$ su -

Step 4 When prompted, enter the root password provided by the network administrator.

Step 5 After you have successfully logged in, change directories to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory by entering this command:

cd /opt/mgmt/scripts/

Step 6 From this directory, invoke the passwd_mgmtsvc utility by entering this command:

./passwd_mgmtsvc

The utility displays this message:

This utility will change the username and password for the Cisco Pulse Management Service.

Step 7 When the utility prompts you, enter the new username.

A username can be a maximum of seven upper- or lower-case alphanumeric characters.

Step 8 When the utility prompts you, enter the new password.

A password can be a maximum of 15 upper- or lower-case alphanumeric characters.

Step 9 When the utility prompts you, reenter the new password.

Step 10 Restart the application on the appliance by performing one of these substeps:

a. For a Pulse Collect Appliance, enter this command:

service collect restart

b. For a Pulse Connect Appliance, enter this command:

service connect restart

Changing the ncpadmin Password

Note This topic is intended for the system administrator.

During the installation of application software on the Pulse Connect Appliance, you created a password for the ncpadmin user account. This account allows you to access the Administration and Vocabulary tabs. The content of these tabs enables you to initially configure and maintain Cisco Pulse and the Pulse Vocabulary.

We recommend changing this password on the Pulse Connect Appliance at regular intervals for security purposes. You can change this password using the passwd_ncpadmin utility, which resides in the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory on the Pulse Connect Appliance.

Note After changing the password, you must restart the application on the Pulse Connect Appliance. Therefore, when performing this update, you must plan accordingly for the resulting interruption of services on the appliance.

To run the utility, you can establish a console port session with the Pulse Connect Appliance, or a Secure Shell (SSH) session between a UNIX- or Microsoft Windows-based management station and the Pulse Connect Appliance. (If your management station runs Microsoft Windows, you must run an SSH client.)

You must log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password. (If you do not already have this login information, you can get it from the network administrator.)

Note As a security measure, you cannot log into the Pulse Connect Appliance directly as root. You must first log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password.

Then, you can go to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory, where you can invoke the utility.

Before You Begin

When you change the ncpadmin password, you need this information:

•System administrator username and password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•Root password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

Procedure

To change the ncpadmin password for a Pulse Connect Appliance:

Note Although you can also establish a console port session with a Pulse Connect Appliance, or an SSH session from a Microsoft Windows workstation running an SSH client, for the sake of providing a sample scenario, this procedure assumes an SSH session established from a UNIX management station.

Step 1 Initiate an SSH session from a management station to the Pulse Connect Appliance using this command syntax:

ssh username@ip-or-host address

or

ssh ip-or-host address -l username

where:

username = System administrator username

ip-or-host address = IP address or host name of the appliance

For example:

ssh admin@10.1.0.11

or

ssh 10.1.0.11 -l admin

Step 2 When prompted, enter the system administrator password provided by the network administrator.

Step 3 Log into the Pulse Connect Appliance as root using this command syntax:

[admin@mylocalhost ~]$ su -

Step 4 When prompted, enter the root password provided by the network administrator:

Step 5 After you have successfully logged in, change directories to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory by entering this command:

cd /opt/mgmt/scripts/

Step 6 From this directory, invoke the passwd_ncpadmin utility by entering this command:

./passwd_ncpadmin

The utility displays this message:

This utility will change the password for the Cisco Pulse ncpadmin user.

Step 7 When the utility prompts you, enter the new password.

A password can be a maximum of 15 upper- or lower-case alphanumeric characters.

Step 8 When the utility prompts you, reenter the new password.

Step 9 Restart the application on the Pulse Connect Appliance by entering this command:

service connect restart