Shutdown VA: PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials after each reboot

[edvzim]

I installed the PowerChute Shutdown Virtual Appliance 5.0 on a standalone ESXi 8.0 host. I finished the Setup Wizard successfully and configured the shutdown options.

But after every reboot of the Virtual Appliance the message "PowerChute Services are disabled due to invalid credentials" is shown on the console.

Also I cannot access the Web Interface.

Only after entering username and password again in pcnsconfig.ini under [NetworkManagementCard] and restarting the PowerChute service am I able to login. The rest of the configuration seems to have stayed to same - only username and password are lost.

What can I do?

[BillP]

@edvzim 

After entering the username and password in the pcnsconfig.ini are you manually starting the PowerChute service to access the web UI? If so log into the PowerChute VM and run the command systemctl enable PowerChute. The next time there is a restart the PowerChute service will start automatically. 

[edvzim]

Hi Bill,

thank you for your reply. I already ran that command previously. The PowerChute service does start automatically after rebooting. I can navigate to the login form via https sucessfully. But after entering the correct user and password on the web page I only get the error message that user or password is invalid.
Only after stopping the service, saving user and password in the pcnsconfig.ini and restarting the service am I able to login.

Could you try to reboot your Virtual Appliance and check if you can still login?

[BillP]

Hi,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

I tested 3 VMs and could not reproduce the issue. Since the OVF has not been configured with vCenter I suggest powering off the VM and install a clean/new VM. It is possible the pcnsconfig.ini or M11.cfg files have been corrupted and that would cause the issue. 

• The maximum number of characters for the user name is 10.
• The password requires:
• Minimum 8 and maximum 128 characters in length
• One upper and lower case letter
• One number and special character
• The username cannot be part of the password.
• Leading and trailing white spaces in passwords are removed.
• Passwords containing a white space are kept.