Video: How to reset the PowerChute Network Shutdown web UI password and username.

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Video: How to reset the PowerChute Network Shutdown web UI password, username, and authentication phrase.

Issue:
Password error: unable to log on to PowerChute Network Shutdown web UI due to unknown username or password.
Would like to change the authentication phrase use to communicate with the Network Management Card via the pcnsconfig.ini file.

Product:
PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS) v3.X, 4.X, 5.X

Environment:
All supported Operating Systems.

Cause:
Lost/unknown username or password for web user interface.
Would like to change the authentication phrase use to communicate with the Network Management Card via the pcnsconfig.ini file.

NOTE: if the password for the PowerChute VMware Virtual Machine is unknown see Schneider Electric FAQ000244469 Steps to reset root password on the AlmaLinux PowerChute Virtual Appliance (VM)

Solution:
To change your username, password or authentication phrase:

1. Stop the PowerChute service.

On Windows open a command prompt as an administrator and enter the command net stop pcns1
On Linux enter from command window enter sudo service PowerChute stop or systemctl stop PowerChute

2. Go to the group1 directory where PowerChute is installed.

On Windows the default path is
C:\Program files\APC\PowerChute\group1
On Linux the default path is
/opt/APC/PowerChute/group1

3. Make a backup of the pcnsconfig.ini file - copy it to another directory and rename it to pcnsconfig-backup.ini.

4. Open pcnsconfig.ini in a text editor.

5. In the [NetworkManagementCard] section of the INI file, set the following lines with your new values:

username = new username

password = new password
You can also enter the Authentication Phrase user for communications with the Network Management Card
authenticationPhrase= new phrase (note the capital P use with the word Phrase )

6. Save pcnsconfig.ini.

7. Start the PowerChute service and log in with your new username and password.

On Windows open a command prompt as an administrator and enter the command net start pcns1
On Linux enter from command window enter sudo service PowerChute start or systemctl start PowerChute

The acceptable characters for username and password are:
• the alphabet in both lowercase and uppercase (a to z and A to Z)
• numbers from 0 to 9
• these characters: _!\"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@^`{|}[]~

The password requires:
• Minimum 8 and maximum 128 characters in length See NOTE 1 Below!
• One upper and one lowercase letter
• One number and special character
• The username cannot be part of the password
• Leading and trailing white spaces in passwords are removed
• Passwords containing a white space are kept

The username must be between 1–10 characters.

The authentication phrase must be 15–32 ASCII characters.

NOTE 1: "The maximum allowed character limit for the password is 128, as documented in all our user documents. However, currently, PowerChute only allows 32 characters. During password setting/resetting, PowerChute will validate and allow setting a 128-character password. No errors will be displayed as part of the validation. However, users cannot log in with a password greater than 32 characters."

NOTE 2: If the username or password do not meet the requirements listed above you will be unable to login to the PowerChute web interface.

For security, the username, password, and authentication phrase lines will be deleted from the pcnsconfig.ini file when the PowerChute service is restarted.