SSH Client fails when local admin account is renamed

[Chris Kelley_4]

When "Administrator" is renamed to another account prior to the installation of the HP OpenSSH client for HPSIM, MxAgentConfig on the management server will not be able to copy the serverâ s keys to the client server.

This is likely due to the fact that OpenSSH appears to map the login name to a corresponding /home/newusername folder. However, when the Administrative account is renamed (a standard security procedure at most security conscious companies), Windows does not rename the c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator folder to the new name.

You can't simply rename the c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator folder to reflect the new login name as the operating system has many static links to the old location in the registry, and it is not known if other applications will break if such action were to be performed.

The best option would be to convince OpenSSH to use the existing /home/Administrator location as the "home" folder for the renamed account. For the likes of me, I am unable to locate any information on how this could occur. Now, I could be entirely wrong on how to best approach this problem. In the end, I need MxAgentConfig to properly enable the client.

As a side note, HP's documentation on the SSH client and its configuration is so bad as to be useless. So is the problem where the installer does not work on NT4, when OpenSSH is actually supported on that platform.

Any assistance would be appreciat

[Rob Buxton]

If you add the new Admin Account using the OpenSSH CLI options it should pick up the path for that account.
But, you could also manually edit the passwd file to reflect the new path.

I believe there are documents being developed regarding the OpenSSH implementation and the requirements around SIM.

[Pat Wilson]

Alternatively, within Windows, log in using a Domain Admin account, or other account with local Admin privileges. Remove the local administrator User Profile (right-click 'My Computer - Properties - User Profiles tab). Then, log out, and log in with the local administrator account. A new profile will be created using the renamed local administrator account name.

[Alan Wells_1]

Yes just so you know I had a similar problem. I am still having all kinds of issues with OpenSSH. I currently cannot get it to run. See my post here. http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=625168.

I thought the same as you because we rename the admin account on all servers. I did remove the Admin profile directory, rebooted, logged in with the new admin name and the correct folder name was created. I then ran the mkpasswd command and the password file now reflects the correct folder. I am still having the same issue described in the link above however. OpenSSH sucks .

[Alan Wells_1]

My God I got it... Here is what I did which is not much different than anyone else but it finally worked for me after many tries.

I logged in as my domain account. The domain account that HPSIM is starting with. I removed OpenSSh. I reinstalled but the damn setup would freeze. I ended the task and performed another uninstall because it did put some stuff on the system. I did not delete the folders after uninstall because everytime I did that the re-install would freeze. Without deleteing the folder I was able to finish the install. Don't ask why. Once the install was done I ran the mkpasswd -d -u >>c:\progra~1\openssh\etc\passwd. This completed with no errors. In fact it only goes back to the command prompt with no messages just so you know. I ran mkgroup -d >>c:\progra~1\openssh\etc\group. This took a while becaue it copies all domain group info to the file on the HD. In my case that is huge. Again no messages except a few about some groups that it couldn't find or something. I logged off and back on as the local admin and ran mkpasswd -l -u >>c:\progra~1\openssh\etc\passwd. This is just to add the local amdin to the password file for good measure.

I logged off and back on as my domain account. I ran ssh username@servername and it prompted me for yes or no. I said yes, I typed my password and login was successful. I typed quit. I typed MxAgentConfig -g and entered my info into the GUI. The logon was successful.

Once I knew OpenSSH was working again I then checked my Event task which was calling to my custom command. I made sure that the task owner was my domain account. In my case I was using a task to identify invalid logins as a test. When i logged in with an invalid login I received the page from Attention software that I expected. All the task logs now show completed with no errors.