USM Appliance Initial Setup

Before performing the setup tasks, you must have successfully deployed USM Appliance and Set Up the Management Interface. You also need to have access to the AlienVault Setup menu.

You can access the AlienVault Setup menu in one of the following ways:

For procedural simplicity, the following task steps reference the user interface (UI) of the SSH client PuTTY as means to explain how to access the AlienVault console.

To access the AlienVault console

  1. Launch PuTTY or any other SSH client, and in the Host Name (or IP address) field, type the IP address of the appliance.
  2. Make sure that SSH is selected.

    This is usually the default setting.

  3. Click Open.
  4. Enter the user credentials you use to log into the SSH client.

    The AlienVault splash screen for USM Appliance appears. If this is the first time, it displays the root username and a randomly generated password for you to enter.

    AlienVault splash screen with root name and randomly generated password.

  5. In the login: field, enter root.
  6. In the password field, enter the displayed randomly generated password, then press Enter.
  7. When prompted whether you would like to change your password, click Yes.

After initial login using the default username and randomly generated password, USM Appliance prompts you to change the password.

Important: If you want to configure high availability (HA) for a USM Appliance Standard or Enterprise component, you must give both the primary and secondary node the same root password. See High Availability Configuration.

To change the root password

  1. On the first Change Root Password panel, type your new password in the New root password field and press Enter.

    Note: The cursor is not visible on the field. To verify that your cursor is in the right location, look for a black left border at the start of the field. This tells you that your cursor is where it should be.

  2. On the second Change Root Password panel, type the password you entered previously and press Enter.
  3. On the third, and final, Change Root Password panel, a confirmation message appears, showing that you have successfully updated the password.

    The application now prompts you to log in again, using the newly created password.