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How to remove the message “PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials.” on the PowerChute VM.

Issue:
After installing PowerChute Network Shutdown for an ESXi host, the PowerChute VM reports
“PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials. Please refer to the PowerChute User Guide for recovery procedures.”

Product:
PowerChute Network Shutdown versions 4.4.x, 5.0

Environment:
PowerChute Appliance/VM on a single ESXi host.

Cause:
The PowerChute web interface username and password are not set when the VM is installed.

Solution:

1. Log into the PowerChute VM as root

2. Enter the command systemctl enable PowerChute to enable PowerChute to start when the VM is powered on.

3. Enter the command systemctl start PowerChute to start the PowerChute service.

Open the PowerChute web interface and run the setup wizard.

4. Once the setup has been completed and a username and password have been assigned to the PowerChute web interface, log back into the PowerChute VM as root.

5. If you are familiar with the vi editor, open /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/99-login-prompt and comment out the lines below by adding a leading # symbol and save the file.

# Check for an ovf environment...
#vmtoolsd --cmd 'info-get guestinfo.ovfenv' > /dev/null 2>&1
#if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
# echo -e "\n\nPowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials. Please refer to the PowerChute User Guide for recovery procedures.\n\n" >> /etc/issue
#fi

Next, edit the file /etc/motd. Delete all the lines and save the file.

After the next reboot when you log in, you will not see the error message “PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials. Please refer to the PowerChute User Guide for recovery procedures.”

NOTE: If you are not comfortable with using vi editor:

1. Verify that SSH is running on the PowerChute VM. The command is systemctl status sshd.

If SSH is not running, enter the command systemctl start sshd.

2. Next, from a Windows system, open a connection to the PowerChute VM using an SSH program, e.g., Filezilla or WinSCP.

3. Log into the PowerChute VM as root

4. On the PowerChute VM, navigate to /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d

5. Right-click on the 99-login-prompt file and select viewed/edited.

6. Comment out these lines by adding a leading # as shown below and save the file.

After the next reboot when you log in, you will not see the error message “PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials. Please refer to the PowerChute User Guide for recovery procedures.”