Parallels Sever BETA (Bare metal)

[valter]

Hi,

I've installed Parallels Server BETA bare metal. During the installation, user should be created. That's ok, but that user is not root, and I saw nowhere possibility to enter root password. Beside, once server is installed, no administration means are available. So here is qouple of qestions.

1. What is the root password, as the password used for the user during installation cannot authenticate root via sudo???

2. How to administer server once installed? No web interface is available on the IP address, no management console is available (except once that comes with Virtuozzo, and that one is trial I guess)

In the installation guide, root user and/or password is mentioned nowhere. It says that Parallels Management Console can be run from "Terminal Console running pmc"? What terminal? If no administrative mean is available in the installation ISO or website, no web interface on the IP address, now in the name of God one is to administer the server?

I've reinstalled this server coule of times just to verify these things, so no mistake during installation is an option. Every single step is done after the Parallels installation manual.

[mhoener]

Hello valter

i have the same problem with the administration, no console.
The user that you created by the install process is to root equatable.

Regards Michael

[aak]

Hi!
First of all thank you for using Parallels Server Bare-Metal!

The superuser can do anything and everything, and thus doing daily work as the superuser can be dangerous. You could type a command incorrectly and destroy the system. Ideally, you run as a user that has only the privileges needed for the task at hand. In some cases, this is necessarily root, but most of the time it is a regular user.

By default, the root account password is locked in Parallels Server Bare-Metal. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the 'su' command to become the root user, however, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges. This is where 'sudo' comes in; it allows authorized users (i.e. users from group 'wheel') to run all programs as root without having to know the root password.


Q:

Hi,

I've installed Parallels Server BETA bare metal. During the installation, user should be created. That's ok, but that user is not root, and I saw nowhere possibility to enter root password.

A:
Yes, the root account password is locked by default.

Q:

1. What is the root password, as the password used for the user during installation cannot authenticate root via sudo???

A:
You should be able to authenticate via sudo using account you've created during installation.

Q:

2. How to administer server once installed? No web interface is available on the IP address, no management console is available (except once that comes with Virtuozzo, and that one is trial I guess)

In the installation guide, root user and/or password is mentioned nowhere. It says that Parallels Management Console can be run from "Terminal Console running pmc"? What terminal? If no administrative mean is available in the installation ISO or website, no web interface on the IP address, now in the name of God one is to administer the server?

A:
We're working on this issue. Can you provide us with information what administration functionality do you need the most?

[valter]

Thank you for your reply.

If I was not familiar with the Linxoide systems I would not go into this at all, so I am aware of "dangerous" steps one may do with root password, but I would never, ever allow any OS on my servers, knowing someone else has locked and knows root password. So, long story short, either I get root password, or this BETA is no more on my servers as far as I am concerned.

What do you mean by " what are the admin functionalities you need the most"? What admin functionalities might be? I can not access the server at all. I can not create virtual machines, I can not do anything, as no Web UI, nor administration console i available, so I guess this BETA is just how to perform installation (?) as I cannot do anything more.

"user" can neither start nor stop parallels-server, as it says that only root can run this script, so "su" doesn't really help...

[dimsuz]

valter,
as aak said, there's no possibility to login into root using 'su' command. You can still run commands with root priveleges though, but another mechanism is used for this and it is called 'sudo'.

To run any command with root priveledges, just type the following at your command prompt:

$ sudo <command>

When asked for password, enter your user account password (no root password needed).

This 'sudo <command>' will be equivalent of doing:
$ su
$ [Enter root password]
$ <command>

[valter]

Thank for you reply.

Maybe I haven't made myself clear enough. Since there is user root on the system, and regardless of can user root access local server or not, I will not allow any OS on my servers without knowing root/admin password. Knowing that OS developer has locked root password, basically means that OS developer can access any system at any time, should system be accessible on the Internet.

So, once more, regardless of su authentication, either I get root password or this BETA is no more at least on my systems.

Besides, this is useless, since no administration is possible, and I guess you're making it even more unusable preventing users from using/knowing root password.

[aak]

Hi!

If I was not familiar with the Linxoide systems I would not go into this at all, so I am aware of "dangerous" steps one may do with root password, but I would never, ever allow any OS on my servers, knowing someone else has locked and knows root password.

Once again root password is disabled. This means that there is no root's password and thus nobody knows it. You just cannot login using root account. You see we're using 'shadow' scheme to authenticate. And this scheme allows to 'lock' account's password. Please refer to man 5 shadow:

If the password field contains some string that is not valid result of crypt(3), for instance ! or *, the user will not be able to use a unix
password to log in, subject to pam(7).

Take a look at /etc/shadow file on Parallels Server Bare-Metal, it contains following line for root's account:

root:*:13832:0:99999:7:::

It contains asterisk for password. Thus there is no password for root account. Once again logging in using root account is disabled and nobody know root's password because there is no root's password at all.

What do you mean by " what are the admin functionalities you need the most"? What admin functionalities might be? I can not access the server at all.

Can you access your server via:
* ssh?
* using Parallels Management Console?

"user" can neither start nor stop parallels-server, as it says that only root can run this script, so "su" doesn't really help...

'su' requires root's password, and it's disabled. You should use 'sudo' instead of 'su'. 'sudo' requires password for an account you're logged in.

For instance, if during the installation of Parallels Server Bare-Metal you've created user 'parallels' with password 'pa55w0rd' and you wishe to reboot your server. Than you should do following:

1. Log on using 'parallels' account
2. In shell run:

$ sudo reboot
Password:

Enter 'parallels' account password (i.e. 'pa55w0rd') when prompted.

[valter]

Hi!
Once again root password is disabled. This means that there is no root's password and thus nobody knows it. You just cannot login using root account. You see we're using 'shadow' scheme to authenticate. And this scheme allows to 'lock' account's password. Please refer to man 5 shadow:



Take a look at /etc/shadow file on Parallels Server Bare-Metal, it contains following line for root's account:



It contains asterisk for password. Thus there is no password for root account. Once again logging in using root account is disabled and nobody know root's password because there is no root's password at all.

Ok, thanks

Can you access your server via:
* ssh?
* using Parallels Management Console?

I can see the server via ssh, but not via PMC

[aak]

I can see the server via ssh, but not via PMC

Now, this is not the way we expect it to work :)

Can you describe this issue?

Can you tell whether service 'parallels-server' is running or not?

To do that please run:

$ sudo service parallels-server status

Than check what's listening port 64000

$ sudo netstat -nap | grep 64000

[valter]

Now, this is not the way we expect it to work :)

Can you describe this issue?

Can you tell whether service 'parallels-server' is running or not?

[admin@dionysus ~]$ sudo service parallels-server status
(pid 8940) is running...

Than check what's listening port 64000

[admin@dionysus ~]$ sudo netstat -nap | grep 6400
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:64000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 8940/prl_disp_servi
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:64001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 8940/prl_disp_servi
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:64000 0.0.0.0:* 8940/prl_disp_servi

hope this gives some answers..

[aak]

Strange... everything works.
Can you provide me with error message that appears in Parallels Management Console while connecting to Parallels Server Bare-Meal

[valter]

Here is the PMC connection attamept output:


The following error(s) were detected:
Code
Description
-4
Test the SSL connection to "192.168.1.45".: Connection to vzagent was closed [error 10060 (A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
)]
-4
Test the SSH connection to "192.168.1.45".: Connection to vzagent was closed

[aak]

Try to use Parallels Management Console that comes with Parallels Server.

[valter]

There is no PMC with the parallels server, at least I can't find it...

[sandro]

valter

Please download from here management console (shipped into Parallels Server package) for necessary platform. And use it to manipulate your Bare Metal installation

with best regards,
Alexander

[valter]

This MGMT console works, but keeps crashing down as soon as I try to create new virtual machine. OS is Windows Vista Ultimate SP1...

[sandro]

valter

Could you please provide us with more details:

1. Please specify your test case step by step
2. Please attach here parallels.log file (it situates at %WINDIR%\Temp system folder under Vista OS)

[valter]

Here is the log file...

[sandro]

valter.

Thank you very much for your feedback. We already known about this problem and it was already fixed. In nearest time it'll be beta update so please try to use this incoming beta3 build

with best regards,
Alexander

[priglmeier]

Please click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.