Cray System Management Documentation > Cray System Management (CSM) Administration Guide > security and authentication > Recovering from Mismatched BMC Credentials

Recovering from Mismatched BMC Credentials

Use this procedure to recover from the situation when new or replacement hardware has root credentials that do not match the system’s current default root user credentials.

This type of problem can occur in the following scenarios:

The site has customized the default root credentials using either the Updating the Liquid-Cooled EX Cabinet CEC with Default Credentials after a CEC Password Change or Update Default Air-Cooled BMC and Leaf-BMC Switch SNMP Credentials procedures.
Hardware has the factory default root password or a different known root password configured. For example, hardware that has moved from a different system with a customized default root password.

Procedure

Specify the BMC hostname with the mismatched credentials:
```
BMC=x1000c0r1b0
```
Specify the current root user password for the BMC:

Depending on the origin of the piece of hardware, this could be the factory default password or a different system’s default password.
```
read -s CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD
echo $CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD
```
Verify the credentials work with Redfish using curl:
```
curl -k -u "root:$CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD" https://$BMC/redfish/v1/Managers -i
```
The following example output shows the CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable contains a valid root password for the BMC.
```
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...output truncated...
```
Conversely, the following output shows the CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable contains an invalid root user password for the BMC. Update the CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable to contain a valid root user password for the BMC.
```
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
...output truncated...
```

Update the credentials for the Redfish endpoint stored in Vault using Hardware State Manager (HSM):

cray hsm inventory redfishEndpoints update $BMC --id $BMC --user root --password $CURRENT_ROOT_PASSWORD

Wait a few minutes for HSM to attempt to inventory the BMC:
```
sleep 120
```
Verify the BMC’s discovery status is DiscoverOK:
```
cray hsm inventory redfishEndpoints describe $BMC
```
If DiscoveryStarted, then wait and recheck the discovery status again. If HTTPsGetFailed, then examine the HSM logs to troubleshoot the issue.

Determine the system’s default BMC root user password:

VAULT_PASSWD=$(kubectl -n vault get secrets cray-vault-unseal-keys -o json | jq -r '.data["vault-root"]' |  base64 -d)
alias vault='kubectl -n vault exec -i cray-vault-0 -c vault -- env VAULT_TOKEN=$VAULT_PASSWD VAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8200 VAULT_FORMAT=json vault'

Retrieve the default root password.

For liquid-cooled hardware:

SYSTEM_ROOT_PASSWORD=$(vault kv get secret/meds-cred/global/ipmi | jq .data.Password -r)

For air-cooled hardware:

SYSTEM_ROOT_PASSWORD=$(vault kv get secret/reds-creds/defaults | jq .data.Cray.password -r)

Verify the systems’s default root user password:
```
echo $SYSTEM_ROOT_PASSWORD
```

Create a payload for the System Configuration Service (SCSD):

jq --arg BMC "$BMC" --arg PASSWORD "$SYSTEM_ROOT_PASSWORD" -n \
            '{Targets:[{Xname: $BMC, Creds: {Username: "root", Password: $PASSWORD}}]}' > scsd_payload.json

Inspect the payload:

jq . scsd_payload.json

Example payload contents:

{
  "Targets": [
    {
    "Xname": "x1000c0r1b0",
    "Creds": {
        "Username": "root",
        "Password": "foobar"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Apply the systems’s default BMC root user credentials to the BMC:
```
cray scsd bmc discreetcreds create scsd_payload.json
```
Example of a successful credential change:
```
[[Targets]]
Xname = "x1000c0r1b0"
StatusCode = 204
StatusMsg = "No Content"
```
If the operation is not successful inspect the SCSD logs.
Remove SCSD payload file containing credentials from the file system:
```
rm scsd_payload.json
```