Logging In and Setting Up

This chapter includes the following sections:

Overview of Logging In and Setting Up

You can log in and work with Cisco UCS Central using both Cisco UCS Central GUI and Cisco UCS Central CLI. You can perform almost all of the Cisco UCS Central operations, with very few exceptions, using both the interfaces.

To access the Cisco UCS Central GUI, you can use both HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Access to some features requires that a user have the required privileges. For more information, see the Cisco UCS Central configuration guides.

Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central GUI

The following are the default HTTP and HTTPS web links to log into the Cisco UCS Central GUI.

  • HTTP—The default HTTP web link for the Cisco UCS Central GUI is http://UCSCentral_IP. If you are using the HTML5 UI, then the path is http://UCSCentral_IP/ui

  • HTTPS—The default HTTPS web link for the Cisco UCS Central GUI is https://UCSCentral_IP. . If you are using the HTML5 UI, then the path is https://UCSCentral_IP/ui


Note

UCSCentral_IP represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central. For a cluster configuration, this IP address is the virtual IP address, not one for a specific node.

Procedure
    Step 1   In your web browser, type the Cisco UCS Central GUI web link or select the book mark in your browser.
    Step 2   On the launch page, do the following:
    1. Enter your user name and password.
    2. Click Log In.
    What to Do Next

    Logging Out

    After you have completed your tasks on the Cisco UCS Central GUI, click Log Out on the upper right corner. The Cisco UCS Central GUI logs you out immediately and returns your browser to the launch page.

    Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central CLI

    Use an SSH or telnet client to access the Cisco UCS Central CLI.

    The default address to log into the Cisco UCS Central CLI is UCSCentral_IP


    Note

    The UCSCentral_IP in represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central. For a cluster configuration, this IP address is the virtual IP address, not one for a specific node.

    Procedure
      Step 1   From the SSH client, connect to the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central.
      Step 2   At the log in as: prompt, enter your Cisco UCS Central user name and press enter.
      Step 3   At the password: prompt, enter your Cisco UCS Central password and press enter.
      What to Do Next

      Logging Out

      After you have completed your tasks on the Cisco UCS Central CLI, type exit and press enter. Continue to type exit and press enter until the window closes.


      Note

      Cisco UCS Central CLI clears the buffer of all uncommitted transactions when you exit.

      Resetting the Admin Password

      If you misplaced the admin password that you created for your account when you first installed the Cisco UCS Central software, you must reset your password before you can perform any admin-specific tasks. Make sure you have obtained the password reset image when obtaining the software from Cisco.com. If not, you can obtain the password reset image any time. Example of password reset image name: ucs-central-passreset.1.3.1a.iso


      Note

      If you have installed Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, you must reboot both VM's, mount the ISO separately on both VM's and reset the same password in both VM's.

      Procedure
        Step 1   If necessary, reboot the VM and change the boot options to boot from CD ROM.
        Step 2   Mount the Password Reset ISO image with the virtual CD/DVD drive.
        Step 3   On the UCS Central Admin Password Reset page, do the following:
        1. In the Admin Password field, enter the new admin password.
        2. In the Confirm Admin Password field, re-enter the new admin password.
        3. Click Next.
        Step 4   After the password change is complete, unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.
        Step 5   Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

        Password and Shared Secret Guidelines

        Cisco recommends that each Cisco UCS Central user have a strong password. A password is required when you create each locally authenticated user account in Cisco UCS Central. A user with admin, aaa or domain-group-management privileges can configure Cisco UCS Central to perform a password strength check on the user passwords. The password that you create need to be unique.

        If the password strength check is enabled, each user must have a strong password. Cisco UCS Central rejects any password or shared secret that does not meet the following requirements:

        • Must contain a minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 80 characters.

        • Must contain at least three of the following:

          • Upper case letter

          • Lower case letters

          • Numbers

          • Special characters

        • Must not contain a character that is repeated more than 3 times consecutively. For example: aaabbb111@@@

        • Must not be identical to the user name or the reverse of the user name.

        • Must pass password dictionary check. For example, the password must not be based on a standard dictionary word.

        • Must not contain the following symbols. $ (dollar sign), ? (question mark), and = (equal sign).

        • Must not be blank for local users and admin users.

        • If you are creating strong password, then the password must not contain three consecutive characters or number in any order.

        Resetting the Shared Secret

        Procedure
           Command or ActionPurpose
          Step 1 UCSC # connect local-mgmt  

          Enters local management mode.

           
          Step 2 UCSC (local-mgmt) # set shared-secret  

          Allows you to set a new shared secret.

           
          Step 3At the prompt, enter the new shared secret.    

          The following example shows how to reset the shared secret for Cisco UCS Central: 

          UCSC # connect local-mgmt
UCSC(local-mgmt) # set shared-secret
Enter Shared Secret: passW0rd2
          What to Do Next

          If you reset the shared secret in Cisco UCS Central, you must update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager for each registered Cisco UCS domain.

          Important:

          Do not unregister the Cisco UCS domains.

          Resetting the Shared Secret in Cisco UCS Manager

          If you reset the shared secret in Cisco UCS Central, you must update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager for each registered Cisco UCS domain.

          Important:

          Do not unregister the Cisco UCS domains.

          Procedure
             Command or ActionPurpose
            Step 1Log into the Cisco UCS Manager CLI for the registered domain.    
            Step 2UCS-A# scope system  

            Enters system mode.

             
            Step 3UCS-A /system # scope control-ep policy  

            Enters control-ep policy mode.

             
            Step 4UCS-A /system/control-ep # set shared-secret  

            Enter the shared secret (or password) that matches the new shared secret in Cisco UCS Central.

             
            Step 5UCS-A /system/control-ep # commit-buffer  

            Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

             

            The following example shows how to update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager: 

            UCS-A # scope system
UCS-A /system # scope control-ep policy
UCS-A /system/control-ep # set shared-secret
Shared Secret for Registration: passW0rd2
UCS-A /system/control-ep* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system/control-ep #