Riverbed CXA-00780 Recover/Reset BMC Password?

[jmdomini]

Picked up this nearly new Riverbed box and have repurposed it as an Opnsense device. My one challenge is the BMC controller (web based OOB management) has an unknown password on it. I reached out to the seller and they don't know what it is and told me I would have to contact Riverbed to find out how to reset it. I know very well they aren't going to talk to me not having a service contract. I did find in their documentation how to reset the password on a device running their software, that doesn't help much either as I'm running Opnsense and don't have access to download the Riverbed software to even install it temporarily if I wanted to. Also tried resetting the password via ipmitool Opnsense's FREEBSD environment. While it claims to be successful, the web interface still thows back invalid login.

So in short, anyone know the magic secret to resetting the password on the BMC controller on this device without having access to the original Riverbed software? It's not critical that I get in, however it would be a nice to have feature.

 

[DavidWJohnston]

It looks like these have a serial console port - Did you try connecting to that and see if you can reset it there?

 

[jmdomini]

It looks like these have a serial console port - Did you try connecting to that and see if you can reset it there?

I did, and I followed these instructions to reset the password. Commands were accepted and it seemed like it should have worked. I can even create an additional user with admin rights this way. Yet the web interface doesn't accept the reset password or created login. I don't get it!

How to use IPMI Commands to Reset Password and Username on BMC for...

List of IPMI commands used to reset credentials on Baseboard Management Console (BMC)

www.intel.com

 

[DavidWJohnston]

What if you watch the serial console output during the bootup process - Perhaps you can enter the BIOS and do it there, or maybe there is a preboot keystroke you can use to access the BMC management.

IIRC, on re-branded Intel servers that some appliances use, you can press F2 or something at the console at boot-up, enter the BIOS setup, and there is a tab in there for setting the BMC IP, users, and all that.

 

[Canuckfire]

Did you ever have any luck with this?
I have one of these coming in the mail and this is my concern too.

I am hoping that the defaults work for me, but if not, then I think I remember reading that there is a way to do this from RiOS. (their oem software on the appliances)

Monitoring and Managing SteelHead CX580/CX780/CX3080 Appliances with BMC

 

[Canuckfire]

@jmdomini
It looks like this might be a path to resetting the passwords!

Reset password and Factory Reset Riverbed Steelhead

Start, or reboot the appliance. Once you see the “Press any key to continue” message, press a key. Immediately press E. Press V or ^ to select the disk image to boot. Press E. &n…

linuxleye.wordpress.com

My unit arrived in the mail and I was able to reset the admin password for the console and am trying to go through the setup wizard and see if it will let me access the BMC!

 

[Canuckfire]

Well, after a week I am able to do pretty much anything on the device.... except for access the BMC.
The web interface loads, but none of the commands in the riverbed documentation seem to apply to this series of devices.
I was also disappointed to find out that the reset switch on the front doesn't seem to do anything to help this either. (It didn't seem to reset the device or the BMC, so I am wondering what it's function is supposed to be for)

There are several jumpers on the mainboard that I am tempted to start mucking around with, but I think I might try to read and save the spi storage for the aspeed 2520 before I start that.
I am wondering if the UEFI version of ipmitool might work any better?

At this point, I am thinking that i will try and shelve the factory disks and see if I can make any progress with another OS on the device, and then at least get it installed and running and hopefully find some way to solve this in the future.

 

[Canuckfire]

@jmdomini
I spent a few nights with this and finally got the IPMI access working on these units, so I figured I should document it.

First, confirm that the BMC is enabled in the bios menu (I will need to see if I can get some screenshots)
You can set a static or DHCP address in the bios menu for the BMC, and here you can also add the users that you want to manipulate in ipmitool
Then boot into any software with ipmitool installed locally (i used proxmox as it supported a serial installer)

#confirm ipmi network configuration
    ipmitool lan print 1

#confirm user list
    ipmitool user list 1

#add new user, user enable
    ipmitool user set name *3* *testlogin*
    ipmitool user set password *3*
    Password for user 3: XXXXXXX
    Password for user 3: XXXXXXX
        Set on password command successful (user 3)
   
    ipmitool channel setaccess 1 3 link-on ipmi-on callin-on privilege=4
    ipmitool user enable 3
   
#confirm ipmi user status
    ipmitool user list <channel number>
        #ipmitool user list 1 for lan channel
    ipmitool channel getaccess <channel number> <user id>
        #channel 1 and user id 3 in the above example#
    ipmitool mc reset warm

Here is what you might see if you make a couple new users, note that even though ipmitool shows them as Admin accounts, anything but the Riverbed default will give you a login error on the web interface.



I am not sure if this made a difference, but I read quite a few entries about user authentication for the lan access
ipmitool lan set 1 auth USER MD5

For me, the critical command to allow the new user to enable was:
ipmitool lan set 1 access on

Until this, nothing that I tried had any effect on the web interface after adding users, BMC resets, and so many combinations of username, password, examples and trial and error, running this seemed to just *turn on* the ability to log into the BMC even though the web interface was live the whole time and rejecting login attempts.

references:

Accessing IPMI and Changing IPMI Password | Netgate Documentation

docs.netgate.com

Configuring IPMI under Linux using ipmitool - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki-en

Under Linux, the ipmitool command (http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net/) can be used for configuring IPMI for a server.

www.thomas-krenn.com

https://support.exxactcorp.com/hc/e...847-Resetting-the-BMC-Using-ipmitool-on-Linux
How to use IPMI Commands to Reset Password and Username on BMC for...
IPMICFG 1.37.0_build.250723/IPMICFG_UserGuide.pdf