Setting Up Essentials

Table Of Contents

Setting Up Essentials

Quick Reference

Accessing the Server

Performing Administrator Tasks

Logging In As Administrator

Essentials Logins and Roles

Logging In

Securing the Essentials Server

Changing the Admin Login Password

Changing the Guest Login Password

Configuring the Essentials System

Logging Out As Administrator

Setting Up Essentials

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Now that you have installed Essentials, you need to perform some required administrator tasks. This chapter consists of the following sections:

•Quick Reference

•Accessing the Server

•Performing Administrator Tasks

•Logging Out As Administrator

Quick Reference

provides an overview of Essentials setup and references to more detailed information about each task. The information in the rest of this chapter follows the same order as the quick reference.

Table 4-1 Setting up Essentials Quick Reference 

Task	Steps	References
1 Access the server	Step 1 Log on to the Essentials server.	"Accessing the Server" section
	Step 2 Familiarize yourself with the desktop interface.	"Accessing the Server" section
2 Perform administrator setup tasks	Step 1 Log on to the server as administrator.	"Logging In As Administrator" section
	Step 2 Secure the server.	"Securing the Essentials Server" section
	Step 3 Configure the server.	"Configuring the Essentials System"
	Step 4 Log out of the server.	"Logging Out As Administrator" section

Accessing the Server

To access Essentials, enter the URL of the Essentials server in your web browser, as follows:

•If you installed Essentials on the default port, enter the following URL:

http://server_name 

where server_name is the name of the server on which you installed Essentials.

•If you used the alternative port, enter the following URL:

http://server_name:1741

where server_name is the name of the server on which you installed Essentials. 1741 is the alternative port on which Essentials was installed.

The Essentials desktop appears. (See .)

Figure 4-1 Essentials Desktop

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Note   Make sure that you have configured your web browser as explained in the "" chapter, "Configuring Client Systems"section.

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The network desktop is composed of a series of windows that let you navigate among various network management tasks. Each window consists of two frames.

•The left frame contains a navigation tree, buttons, and a message window.

The tree structure consists of one or more drawers. Each drawer contains associated applications, which in turn contain options. For example, clicking the Admin drawer displays the administration options. Clicking the Software Management folder displays the Software Management options.

Located above the navigation tree are two buttons: Logout and Help. These buttons appear only after you have logged in to Essentials. Clicking Logout returns you to the Login Manager dialog box. Clicking Help displays the help contents or application-specific help, depending on the drawer, folder, or option you select from the navigation tree.

The message window is a web-based tips-of-the-day window. Product upgrade information, product tips, and other support information that can make you more productive are displayed in this window. Cisco messages are automatically updated to CCO users daily. You do not need to have CCO access for this window to work.

To turn off the messages, click on the square in the message window. The square changes to a different colored circle and the window freezes until you click the circle to turn the messages back on.

•The right frame contains explanations and wizard steps to task completion.

If you cannot access the Essentials server or the desktop is not displayed correctly, refer to the "" appendix. In addition, refer to the troubleshooting chapter in Getting Started with Resource Manager Essentials.

Performing Administrator Tasks

Now that you have accessed the Essentials server, you need to log in as the administrator and set up the server for other users. The following sections explain how to perform administrator tasks.

Logging In As Administrator

To perform adminstrator setup tasks you must log in as administrator. First, it is helpful to understand Essentials logins and roles, which control user access to the system.

Essentials Logins and Roles

To use Essentials, you must have a valid login—a combination of a username and password. There are five groupings of access privileges to Essentials, called roles. The five roles are as follows:

•Help Desk (HD)

•Approver (AP)

•Network Operator (NO)

•Network Admin (NA)

•System Admin (SA)

Your access to application options is determined by the roles assigned to your login.

The access privileges assigned to the roles are not cumulative. That is, there is not a hierarchy of roles, with each role including all of the privileges of the role "below" it. Instead, each role is associated with a number of tasks the user can perform. The roles and their tasks are static; however, administrators can assign users to more than one role. For a full list of the roles and their corresponding access privileges, refer to the online help.

Essentials ships with two default logins, shown in .

Table 4-2 Essentials Default Logins

Username	Login Name	Password
admin	Admin	admin
guest	Guest	—

The admin login is the equivalent of a superuser login. It provides access privileges to all product functions. To prevent all users from accessing privileged applications, you should change the passwords for these default logins.

Logging In

To log in as administrator, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Enter the default administrator username and password in the Login Manager dialog box (see ) as follows:

User Name: admin

Password: admin

Figure 4-2 Login Manager Dialog Box

Step 2 Click Connect.

The Login Manager dialog box is replaced by the navigation tree.

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Note   Essentials ships with default logins, as described in the "Essentials Logins and Roles" section. You should change the default password for these logins as soon as possible to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the Essentials server. See the "Securing the Essentials Server" section for more information on changing the default passwords.

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Step 3 Select Admin on the navigation tree to open the Admin drawer.

The administrator folders appear. (See .) These folders contain the administrator options.

Figure 4-3 Administrator Folders

Securing the Essentials Server

To secure the Essentials server, change the passwords for the default logins as soon as possible. Changing the administrator login password is particularly important because the administrator login provides access to all application options.

To maintain ongoing security for your server, be careful when creating new logins. Assign roles to user logins so that users can access only those application options that you want them to access.

Essentials also provides built-in security using the features of the Solaris operating system. For more information about these security features, refer to the "" appendix.

Changing the Admin Login Password

To change the admin login password, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Select Admin > User Accounts > Modify My Profile. The Modify my User Settings dialog box appears (see ).

Figure 4-4 Modify My Profile Dialog Box

Step 2 Enter a password in the Password field.

Step 3 Confirm the password by entering it in the Confirm Password field. This field is required.

Step 4 Optionally, enter values for any of the other fields in the dialog box.

Step 5 Click Modify.

The dialog box is displayed until you select another option from the navigation tree.

Changing the Guest Login Password

To change the guest login password, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Select Admin > User Accounts > Modify/Delete Users. The Modify User dialog box appears (See .).

Figure 4-5 Modify/Delete User Dialog Box

Step 2 Select the guest login from the Users list.

Step 3 Enter the new password in the Password field.

Step 4 Confirm the new password by entering it in the Confirm Password field. This field is required.

Step 5 Optionally, enter values for any of the other fields in the dialog box.

Step 6 Click Modify. The message "User modified" appears in the lower left corner of the dialog box.

The dialog box is displayed until you select another option from the navigation tree.

Configuring the Essentials System

You can configure system-wide information on the Essentials server using the System Configuration option. You should verify that the default information is correct or enter corrected information, if necessary, during initial system setup.

To configure the system, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Select Admin > System Administration > System Configuration. The System Configuration dialog box appears (see ).

Step 2 Select one of the following tabs to enter information or to verify that the configured information is correct:

•Proxy

•SNMP

•RCP

Refer to for descriptions of the information that appears in each dialog box tab.

Figure 4-6 System Configuration Dialog Box

Table 4-3 System Configuration Dialog Box Information 

Tab Name	Description	Fields—Values to Enter
Proxy	Used by Essentials applications to connect to CCO. If the Essentials server access to the outside world is controlled through a proxy server, this setting must be configured.	Proxy URL—Enter the system-wide proxy URL. There is no default.
SNMP	Used by Essentials applications to query devices for inventory collection, which includes importing and adding devices, and collecting inventory data.	Fast SNMP Timeout—Enter the amount of time, from 5 to 90 seconds, the system should wait for a a device to respond before it tries to access it again. The default is 5. Fast SNMP Retry—Enter the number of times, from 2 to 6, the system should try to access devices with fast SNMP options. The default is 2. Slow SNMP Timeout—Enter the amount of time, from 10 to 90 seconds, the system should wait for a device to respond before it tries to access it again. The default is 20. Slow SNMP Retry—Enter the number of times, from 2 to 6, the system should try to access a device with slow SNMP options. The default is 3.
RCP	Used to specify the user when remote operations from devices are performed. It is used to authenticate any RCP transfers between the devices and the Essentials server. The user account must exist on UNIX systems, and should also be configured on devices as local user. For additional information, refer to the "" chapter, "Setting Up RCP" section.	User Name—Enter the name used by a network device when it connects to the Essentials server to run RCP.

Step 3 Click Apply to apply changed information.

Step 4 Click Defaults to apply the defaults already configured in the system.

Step 5 Repeat Step 2 through Step 4 until you have verified or corrected all the information displayed in the System Configuration dialog box.

The dialog box is displayed until you select another option from the navigation tree.

Logging Out As Administrator

To end your administrator tasks, you must log out of Essentials. Follow these steps to log out:

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Step 1 Close all secondary browser windows that are open. You should have only one browser window opened displaying the Essentials interface.

Step 2 Click Logout. The Login Manager dialog box replaces the navigation tree.

Now that you have performed the necessary administrator tasks, continue installation with the "" chapter.