Seven weeks later, here's your Cisco UCS password!

Company finally tells customers that it changed default code for configuring servers

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BalticServers.com (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This might be up there with the cable connector boot that hit the reset button on Cisco switches…

For seven weeks, Cisco’s been shipping UCS servers with a default password unknown to its systems administration customers, the company said in a field notice posted yesterday. The Register was first to report on the situation.

The default password when initially configuring these servers is supposed to be “password.” But Cisco changed that to “Cisco1234” back in November, apparently without telling customers.

From the field notice:

Customers might not be able to log in to their C-Series servers with the published default admin password "password" since this has been changed to "Cisco1234" for these systems. Customers should access the CIMC (Cisco Integrated Management Controller) interface with this combination "admin":"Cisco1234" and set the password back to the default or a customer desired password.

The different default password is on systems manufactured between November 17, 2015 and January 6, 2016. Cisco recommends changing the password once access is gained using the default “Cisco1234” password.

There are a couple of other workarounds to this situation described in the Field Notice.

And if you’re connecting these servers through a Cisco Catalyst 3650 or 3850 switch, don’t forget to break off that protective boot from the cable connector lest your frustration expand from the server rack to the network.

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