Logging in to the System Console

How do I login to the console in LiquidFiles?

Every system has a console, either you have a physical system to which you connect a keyboard and monitor, or you have a virtual system where the virtual system provides the console somehow. In VMware ESX for instance, there's a console tab.

After you've clicked on the console tab (or where the console is located in your virtual system), you can click F1 (or ESC and F1 on some hosts) to get to the login prompt.

Root password

You login as the user root. There's no default root password. You set the root password in Admin → System → Console Access. If you're using a virtualization system such as Hyper-V, VMware or a physical server you can login with the username `root` and the root password set in the Root Password section.

Reset Root password

If you don't remember the root password, you need to reset it. To reset the Root Password, please go to Admin → System → Console Access. Click on the Root Password Tab and you will see the instructions there:

SSH Login - for versions 2 and 3 ONLY

You can also use SSH with an SSH client like Putty (if you're using Windows).

When logging in, you need to enter the hostname or ip address of the LiquidFiles system, and specify TCP port 222 as per the screenshot below (LiquidFiles v2.x and earlier used TCP port 22 for SSH). For login use root super user. Only when login to LF versions 3 or 2:

The equivalent example on a Unix/Linux system would be:

user@system% ssh -p 222 root@172.16.5.131

SSH Login with SSH keys - mandatory for Versions 4 and instances in AWS and Azure cloud

Since LiquidFiles v4 you can login only with SSH keys. Login as root with password is not supported now via SSH. To login to the command line on a LiquidFiles instance you will need to generate ssh keys for on-prem instances out of the LiquidFiles box (i.e. with ssh-keygen or Putty Key Generator). If you have LiquidFiles running in AWS or Azure cloud then use the ssh keys you had generated/assigned to that instance during the initial deployment.

In the Windows based Putty client, you need to have the ssh keys in PPK format. In case you have the SSH keys in OpenSSH PEM format you will need to convert them to the PPK format. This needs to be done by loading the private key in PEM in the Putty Key Generator and save it a PPK file.

The public key in PEM format which is also shoved in the Key Generator copy to a clipboard and paste under the Admin → System → Console Access → SSH authorized Keys tab on the LF server:

Now when the SSH keys have been converted in the PPK format you can continue with the Putty client setup. You need to enter the hostname or ip address of the LiquidFiles system, and specify TCP port 222, and the liquidfiles system user as per the screenshot below.

Select the PPK file to use by selecting Connection → SSH → Auth → Credentials → Private key file for authentication as in the screenshot below:

Depending on LiquidFiles version when you first installed LiquidFiles, the username to use when logging in is liquidfiles.

To become root (superuser), after you've logged in please run:

[liquidfiles@liquidfiles ~]$ sudo bash

The equivalent example on a Unix/Linux system would be:

user@system% ssh -p 222 -i /path/to/private_ssh_key liquidfiles@liquidfiles.mycompany.com

SSH Access Control

If you wish to limit SSH Logins to certain hosts and networks, please go to Admin → System → Console Access. You'll see the following screen:

As per the screenshot, you can limit logins to this LiquidFiles system from certain hosts, ip addresses or networks. This is very useful if you have a general open network and all admin PC's on a specific network.