Managing node accounts in OTbase Discovery Manager

OTbase Discovery Manager 17.7 lets you manage the accounts used to sign in to your Discovery Servers and Discovery Agents. You can view accounts, add local accounts and LDAP access entries, change local passwords, and remove accounts across multiple nodes.

Account operations use the nodes' current connections. A node must be connected and support the requested operation. Remote configuration must be enabled on the node to add, change, or remove accounts. For LDAP sign-in, configure LDAP on the target nodes first.

Open Accounts mode

1. Select the group containing the nodes you want to manage.
2. Click Accounts in the toolbar.
3. Expand a node to see its accounts. Account lists load automatically for connected nodes.

The Account type column identifies local primary accounts, additional local accounts, LDAP users, and LDAP groups. The Status column shows account counts, connection details, and operation errors.

Use Search nodes and accounts to filter the information in the visible columns. Click a sortable column heading to change the order. Select Hide not connected and unsupported nodes to hide nodes that are connecting, disconnected, or reporting account-loading or support errors. The client remembers this setting.

Accounts mode applies to the current group. Click Accounts again to return to the normal node view before switching groups. Lock Screen, Settings, and About remain available while Accounts mode is active.

Select nodes and accounts

Use Ctrl+click to select individual rows or Shift+click to select a range. The right-click menu provides node actions and account actions for your selection.

For password changes and removals, your selection determines the targets:

Selecting an account row limits account actions to the selected account rows, including when node rows are also selected. To choose from all eligible accounts on selected nodes, select only the node rows.

Account actions exclude nodes that are disconnected, still loading, or busy with an operation, an open client window, or an open settings session. An action is unavailable when there are no eligible targets.

The following account types support password changes and removal:

Add a local account

1. Select one or more connected node rows.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Add account....
3. Set Type to Local account.
4. Enter the Username, Password, and Confirm password. Alternatively, select Use my Manager account to use the username and password of your current Manager sign-in for the node account.
5. Leave Update existing user cleared to create new accounts only. Select it if you also want to update passwords for matching usernames that already exist on the selected nodes.
6. Click Add account.

New local accounts are additional accounts. If the username already exists and Update existing user is cleared, Manager reports Username already exists. for that node and leaves its password unchanged. When the option is selected, the supplied password can also replace the password of an existing primary account.

Add an LDAP user or group

1. Select one or more connected node rows.
2. Right-click and choose Add account....
3. Set Type to LDAP user or LDAP group.
4. Enter the identity in User@domain or Group@domain, using the format configured for LDAP on the target nodes. For example, enter engineer@example.org or operators@example.org.
5. Click Add account.

This adds an allowed LDAP access entry on each target node. It does not create an account in your directory. LDAP passwords are managed through the directory service.

Change local account passwords

1. Select the nodes or account rows you want to manage.
2. Right-click and choose Change password....
3. If the account selection dialog opens, review the accounts and clear any you want to leave unchanged. All displayed accounts are initially checked.
4. Enter the new password and confirm it.
5. Click Change password in the account selection dialog, or OK in the password dialog for a selection containing only account rows.

The account selection dialog contains only eligible local accounts. You can sort the columns and use Select all or Deselect all to change the selection.

Each username and account type appears once. Expand its row to inspect the full node names and addresses. The account checkbox applies to every node listed beneath that account. To limit a change to specific nodes, select the corresponding account rows in the main table before starting the action.

You can change passwords for both primary and additional local accounts. LDAP users and groups are excluded from password changes.

Remove accounts

1. Select the nodes or account rows you want to manage.
2. Right-click and choose Remove....
3. If the account selection dialog opens, review the checked accounts. Expand an account to inspect its target nodes, and clear any accounts you want to keep.
4. Click Remove accounts. For a selection containing only account rows, review the confirmation and click Yes.

[Screenshot 05: Remove selected accounts dialog with additional local and LDAP accounts, one expanded node list, and the Remove accounts button. Primary accounts are absent.]

Figure 5. Select the accounts to remove and inspect their target nodes before confirming.

The primary local account is protected and is excluded from removal. Removing an LDAP entry changes the node's allowed LDAP entries; the user or group in your directory remains unchanged.

Sign in with temporary credentials

Use temporary credentials when Manager cannot connect to a node with your current Manager sign-in.

1. If necessary, clear Hide not connected and unsupported nodes so the affected nodes are visible.
2. Select one or more disconnected node rows. All selected nodes must be disconnected for this menu option to appear.
3. Right-click and choose Sign in with temporary credentials....
4. In Sign in on nodes, enter the node username and password.
5. Click OK.

Manager reconnects the selected nodes with these credentials. It reuses them for later connections and account operations on those nodes until you sign out of Manager. Nodes using temporary credentials have a separate light green row color.

Use Refresh connection from a node's right-click menu to reconnect it when needed. Account lists load when the connection succeeds.

Check results and resolve problems

After a change, Manager reloads the affected account lists. Removed accounts disappear from the view. Check the Status column for node and account errors, especially when working with several nodes: an operation can succeed on some nodes and fail on others.