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Changing the username and password

The default administration user name and password for the Geronimo Administrative Console and command line deployment tool is system and manager respectively. You can change these defaults directly from the Administration Console by accessing Security -> Console Realm and change the user name and password from the Console Realm Users portlet.

Alternatively, you can make the same changes by editing the users.properties and groups.properties files, both located in the <geronimo_home>/var/security directory.

Important

Access to the <geronimo_home>/var/security directory should be appropriately secured. Different operating systems offer different alternatives to securing files and directories. Most cases would involve restricting permission to specific user groups.

Passwords in users.properties file are encrypted by the server. Passwords can be changed using the Geronimo Administrative Console. They can also be changed using a text editor. While the server is stopped, simply edit the users.properties file. The password(s) will be encrypted the next time the server is started.

To prevent potential security exposures, we strongly recommend you update the default user names and passwords on your system.

By editing the properties files

Open the <geronimo_home>/var/security/groups.properties file and edit the contents of this file. Add any username that you require and save the file.

groups.properties
admin=user1,user2

Next, open the <geronimo_home>/var/security/users.properties file. You can change the password for the existing system account and/or add new users. When adding a new user, the username has to be the same as the one added to the groups.properties file.

users.properties
user1=password1
user2=password2

In this example, two users have been added, user1 and user2 and the default system account has been deleted. Both user1 and user2 can access the console and the command line deployment tools.

By modifying the security configuration from the Administrative Console

Log into the Geronimo Administration Console and click on Users and Groups on the console navigation panel. This will display the Console Realm Users and Console Realm Groups portlets.

  • Click on the Create New User link to add a new user. In the Actions section you can edit or delete existing users.
  • Click on Create New Group link to add new user to the group.
  • Once the new user name and password is added, log out of the console and try the new user name and password.

Visit the Administering security section for more details on all the security related settings.