Access Manager: VMCentre Overview

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This article is marked as obsolete.

VMCentre is a powerful new replacement for the VM Console menu system. It adds many new features and provides enhanced functionality with an easy to use interface to help users administer the Access Manager virtual machine more effectively. In this article we'll go over the functions and menus available.

Initial Configuration

When you boot the Access Manager for the first time, you will be prompted to set an initial password for the root user (If you have upgraded from VM Control to VM Centre, this section will be skipped as the system will continue to use your existing root user password).

 

Log into VMCentre

In order to log into VM Centre to start to administer Access Manager, you will need to provide the root user password. Here you can also see the address of the Access Manager server which is required to log into the web interface.

 

Top Menu

 - Configuration: Allows you to configure the Keyboard and mouse settings.

 - New console: Opens a system shell, allowing root user access.

 - Exit VM Centre - Log out of VM Centre.

 - Restart - Restarts the Access Manager VM.

 - Shutdown - Powers of the Access manager VM.

 

Dashboard

Once logged in, you are taken to the dashboard section. Here the system details are displayed including: Disk, Memory and Network information. You can also view the status of the various services required by Access Manager.

 

Settings

 

  • Support Callback - The callback function allows a support operativeto access your server in case of problems. From here you can enable a secure SSL connection which will connect to Nervepoint Tech support servers for an engineer to connect into your VM and gather any required data. The tunnel is completely secure and initiated and controlled by the user rather than Nervepoint Technologies.
  • VNC Server - Allows remote access using a standard VNC client.
  • SSH Server - Allows secure text only access using a standard SSH client (OpenSSH must be installed from the updates page)
  • MySQL Database Service - Allows you to stop or restart the MySQL service.
  • Nervepoint Access Manager - Allows you to stop or restart the main Nevepoint service.
  • Postfix Email Server - Allows you to stop or start the Postfix email server.

 

Networking

Networking allows you to configure the network settings including:

  • Change hostname
  • Configure DHCP or a Static IP address
  • Network address
  • Domain name
  • DNS Servers

 

Updates

 

New updates will be displayed here, these are updates for VM Centre as well as Access Manager and OS updates. You can also install / remove the following optional software (checkbox will be ticked if the software is already present):

  • OpenSSH - Select if you wish to install the OpenSSH server.
  • VMControl - Select to install the legacy VM Control VM front-end (this will remove VM Centre)
  • Webmin - Select if you wish to install the legacy web based system administration utility.

 

Time

Here you can configure the time / date and also set the timezone you are in.

 

Support

The Support option provides a number of recovery and configuration options.

 

  • Reset IP Restrictions - When an admin is locked out of the system due to a IP restriction rule, this allows you to clear all IP rules allowing the admin to get back into the administration console.
  • Factory Reset - This option will completely clear the system of all data and return it to it's pre-configured state. Please ensure you have a backup of the system before selecting this.
  • Postfix Flush - Attempts to force delivery of any non delivered messages in the deferred mail queue.
  • Autologin - When enabled you are not required to login to VM Centre when the system start-up. Please consider the security implications before enabling Autologin.

 

Users

Allows you to manage users of the Access Manager system.

 

Root - Allows you to change the password for the root user, this user is used to log into VM Centre.
Admin - The password for the main admin user required to access the web based console. You can reset the password here if the password has been forgotten.

 

Logs

The Support option provides a number of recovery and configuration options.

 

Firewall

If enabled you can configure the VMCentre firewall from here.