Login problems

Use this information to solve problems related to logging in to the IBM® Flex System Manager management software web interface.

Login problems

When you attempt to log into the management software using the IBM Flex System Manager management software web interface, the following error message is displayed:
Login failed. Check the user ID and password and try again.
This problem can occur when logging into the management server either locally or remotely.

Investigation

Before resolving this problem, review the following considerations:
  • Make sure that the password is correct and that the Caps Lock and Number Lock keys are not on.
    From the management software command-line interface (CLI), you can use the following command to reset a user's password:
    smcli resetuserpwd -u <user_name> -p <temporary_password>
    The user must change the password at the next login attempt; see Logging in with a temporary password after a password reset.
  • If you created the password in the CLI and the password contains special characters, you might have to reset the password.
    Important: If you use any of the following characters in a password that you create in the command-line interface, you must add \ (backslash) in front of each special character: @, $, #, !, &, (, ), |, <, >, ", '. If you do not use the backslash with each of these characters, an error occurs or an unexpected password value is stored in the management software. The following characters can cause conflicts with other components in the system and should not be used: ", |, <, >, and any whitespace character such as space or tab.
  • Make sure the password does not require updating, and has not expired in the user registry.
    From the management software CLI, you can use the following command to determine if the user's password is expired:
    smcli pwdexpired -u <user_name>
  • Make sure the user is not locked or disabled in the user registry.
    Note: If a user fails to log in 20 or more times, the user is locked out.
    From the management software CLI, you can use the following command to determine if the user's account is locked:
    smcli userlocked -u <user_name>
  • A reset password must be changed, either through the web interface or a CLI command, the first time the user attempts to login.

Resolution

If you failed to log in 20 or more times, open a management software command-line interface prompt and type the following command to unlock your user name:
smcli unlockuser -u <user_name>
where user_name is the locked user name.
Note:
  1. You must have a user account with SMAdministrator or SMManager permissions to use this command.
  2. You can use the pe user account to unlock user accounts. When you completed the Management Server Setup wizard, the password for the pe account was automatically set to be the same as the password for the system-level user account (the default system-level user account is USERID).
Note: If the password for the USERID account is expired, the pe account does not have the authority to reset the USERID password. If this occurs, contact IBM support to obtain a temporary password that will allow you to use su to temporarily become the root user, which will allow you to reset this password.