Just Cannot Login as Administrator

[Lenny Davis]

Just Cannot Login as Administrator on one of my W2K servers. Won't accept the password.
Have copied c:\compaq\wbem\cpqhmmd.acl from a server that works but this has not fixed the problem. Have even uninstalled all PSP7.30 components available to uninstall from Add/Remove Programs and Re-installed but this has not fixed the problem. I even renamed the c:\compaq directory before re-installing so a fresh one could be created. I believe the defauls password for administrator is administrator, but this doesn't work either. Nor a blank password. This is now going beyond a joke.

Anyone any ideas I would be very greatful. There is definitely 10 points up for grabs here!

Thanks

Lenny

[Rich Purvis]

Ok - this is a little confusing but we will try and get through it. As an FYI default passwords for Administrator/Operator/User have not been allowed for years on a fresh install - if they were there before as in an upgrade then that is ok but the practice for having default passwords was stopped a long time ago.
Starting with PSP7.20 and later the PSP now contains a new component called the System Management Homepage. This replaces the software that used the cpqhmmd.acl and the ini files. This new service uses OS based authentication. As a matter of fact check the sign-on screen - it should have a message there indicating that fact. What do you use to sign-on then? Well the default is the local administrator account for that system. Prior to installation you can preconfigure that component to use a certain set of OS user groups as Admin or operator. For example, you can create a a standard userid called MyUserID. Fact is you can create a number of these plain userids if you wish for a number of different people to have admin access. You can then place them in something like MySMHAdmin user group that you create. The SMH service will then allow you to configurethe SMH to use the MySMHAdmin group as one of the Administrator groups for SMH. This way you can have a set of ID's with no special priviledges to the OS but can act with Admin authority for the applications running in the SMH.
Or you can just do a default install with no configuration and use an ID in the Administrator group like the default OS Administrator ID.
Technically, the old ACL/INI files are not used for authentication anymore but you will find that they are created for backwards compatibility reasons to allow the old software to integrate with the new SMH.
Hopefully this answered your question, if not, provide more information if you can and we will try and sort it out if possible.

-Rich

[Lenny Davis]

Thanks for that comprehensive info. Here are my updates:-

Yes the sign on screen does suggest it uses OS authentication. I am using the Administrator user id with the machine OS password and it just says 'Failed Login'.

I can't work out how to pre-confifure SIM components before installation. It suggests you can from the iitial support pack installation screen but you can't. If I can work out how to do this it might help.

I have even added an Administrative user called SIM which the IM software still says Login Failed even though the password is correct and it can login at the server console using this new user id.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

Lenny

[Rich Purvis · Accepted solution]

Ok, most of the time when people have problems signing in with their default Admin for the OS is because the server is a domain controller. If you have not tried this you might try the login with: "domain/Administrator" instead of just "Administrator" as part of the login credentials. Where "domain" is whatever domain that system is a part of.

-Rich

[Lenny Davis]

Thanks very much. Yes that solved the problem, entering domain\Administrator as the user. The server is part of a 2 node SQL cluster and one is the domain controller and one the backup domain controller. Interestingly enough I don't have the problem on the other server.

Thanks again.

Lenny