Regaining Access to the LINBIT GUI

This article describes how to regain access to the LINBIT® GUI for LINSTOR® when you’ve lost or forgotten the credentials after enabling user authentication.

Requirements

To regain access to the LINBIT GUI after losing or forgetting your credentials, you must have access to the LINSTOR controller from a LINSTOR client. Typically, the LINSTOR client is installed on the server acting as the LINSTOR controller, but a LINSTOR client can be installed and used from anywhere on the network if the LINSTOR controller and the LINSTOR client are configured to allow remote connections.

Disabling User Authentication Temporarily

To regain access to the LINBIT GUI, you will need to temporarily disable LINBIT GUI’s user authentication. You can do this by modifying the LINSTOR GUI’s settings, which are stored in the LINSTOR controller’s database, as key-value-store objects.

Using a LINSTOR client which is able to connect to the LINSTOR controller, you can list and show the LINBIT GUI’s settings using the following commands:

[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store list
╭─────────────────╮
┊ Name            ┊
╞═════════════════╡
┊ __gui__settings ┊
┊ users           ┊
╰─────────────────╯
[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store show __gui__settings
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
┊ Key                   ┊ Value                    ┊
╞══════════════════════════════════════════════════╡
┊ __updated__           ┊ 2024-06-07T16:04:59.374Z ┊
┊ authenticationEnabled ┊ true                     ┊
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Temporarily set the authenticationEnabled property to false and verify the change using the following commands:

[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store modify __gui__settings authenticationEnabled false
SUCCESS:
    Successfully updated properties
[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store show __gui__settings
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
┊ Key                   ┊ Value                    ┊
╞══════════════════════════════════════════════════╡
┊ __updated__           ┊ 2024-06-07T16:57:51.758Z ┊
┊ authenticationEnabled ┊ false                    ┊
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

After updating the property, navigate to your LINBIT GUI using your web browser or refresh the page if it’s already open in your browser. You should have regained access to the LINBIT GUI.

Now you can navigate to the “Users” section of the LINBIT GUI, and reset your password.

LINBIT GUI users section

Once you’ve reset the password, you can either toggle the “User authentication” switch to “on” using the GUI, or re-enable the authenticationEnabled property on the LINSTOR controller using the following LINSTOR client command:

[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store modify __gui__settings authenticationEnabled true
SUCCESS:
    Successfully updated properties
[root@linstor-ctrl-0 ~]# linstor key-value-store show __gui__settings
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
┊ Key                   ┊ Value                    ┊
╞══════════════════════════════════════════════════╡
┊ __updated__           ┊ 2024-06-07T17:57:51.758Z ┊
┊ authenticationEnabled ┊ true                     ┊
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Refreshing the LINBIT GUI should now present you with a login prompt, and you should be able to log in using your newly reset password.