TSM Instance Password and Upgrade to 7.1

[dcharles226]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, but we are trying an upgrade from TSM 6.3 Server to 7.1 and we are in a situation where we need to change the TSM instance password, in our case the user tsminst1. We need to change the password, because the admin who configured this server never documented what the original password was.

I was wondering how changing the password would affect the upgrade and the tsmdb? Are there any other passwords I will need to change/update in order to get the instance up and running again once the upgrade is complete?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[rgg]

nope, that should be it and it shouldn't impact the database now, during the upgrade, or after.

 

[dcharles226]

Thank you for the quick response, it is much appreciated! That being said, how do I go about changing the TSM Instance password? I thought it would be pretty straightforward, but I guess I was wrong.

When I run q admin in the admc, I don't see the instance user (tsminst1).

Thanks again.

 

[rgg]

this isn't controlled by tsm, which is why it doesn't matter to tsm. the account is a user (hopefully local) on the OS, so you change it according to whatever OS you're using. you should work with your system admin to change it.

 

[dcharles226]

We are running TSM 6.3 on Red Hat 6.2. So all I need to do is change the tsminst1 user password? I thought that there was both the local OS user (tsminst1) and another TSM specific administrator user (tsminst1) that was responsible for running the server instance, or am I mistaken?

 

[rgg]

The latter

You just need to change the OS user tsminst1 password at the OS layer, or if you already know that, then you're ready to supply that to the 7.1 upgrader when it asks you. The upgrade doesn't need to know any TSM specific admin or user password (that you would see or query within dsmadmc).

 

[dcharles226]

Hello again,

So when I'm attempting to perform the upgrade, and it prompts me for the instance password, I'm entering in the new OS user tsminst1 password and getting the prompt:

The password for this instance is not recognized. Retry the password. Alternatively, to skip this instance, type "s" and then press Enter.

This looks like this requires the tsminst1 instance user password, which we do not know. I'm trying to find the correct method of updating that password, but not finding anything. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[marclant]

Did you just create "tsminst1" now?

If the answer is yes, then this can't be the instance owner. You need to use the OS user and password for the instance owner.

If the answer is no and you know for sure "tsminst1" is the instance owner, just update the password at the os level, then retry.

 

[dcharles226]

So, we've figured out what the issue was. When prompting for the tsminst1 user, apparently the server needs to ssh to itself in order to verify the credentials of the instance owner during the upgrade.

We put in a restriction in the hosts.allow and hosts.deny files that blocks all ssh access except for two secure terminal servers.

Since that restriction was in place, it was preventing the upgrade from verifying the instance owner credentials. So this was basically the fault of our own protocols.

Thanks again for all the quick responses and help.

 

[rgg]

Yep - you got it.

An alternative would have been to select "no" to upgrading the instances when prompted, and doing it manually afterwards following these steps: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowl...com.ibm.itsm.tshoot.doc/t_pdg_manupgrade.html

 

[dcharles226]

Upgrade was a success. We are now on TSM 7.1.

Many thanks again for everyone's input on my issue!