Selecting option 3, Local Administration, in the Main Menu brings up the Local Administration screen.

This menu performs administration tasks for the current LoadMaster. The following options are available:

Set Password

You can use this option to change the local password for the user “bal”. The password should be changed for security reasons. Remote access over SSH is not allowed until the password has been changed.

Note: The password is not saved when performing a backup and is not replaced when performing a restore.

If the LoadMaster is running in a HA (High Availability) mode, each LoadMaster can have a separate password. The password information is not transferred between the members of a cluster.

Set Date/Time

This option allows you to set the local date, time and time zone.

A list of time zones is given; the current time zone is always at the start of the list. You can select a different time zone if required.

The date should be entered in the following format:

22-12-03 (Year-Month-Day)

Followed by the time in the following format:

10:57:15 (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)

Note: The default time zone for the LoadMaster is UTC.

Backup/Restore

Selecting the Backup/Restore option opens a screen with two options:

  • Save Backup to Remote Host
  • Restore Backup from Remote Host

When option 1 is selected, the backup process begins. The following information is requested:

  • The host IP address where the backup will be stored
  • The username on the backup host
  • The filename of the backup
Note: The backup server machine must run an FTP daemon or an SSH daemon.

When option 2 is selected, the backup restore process begins. The following information is requested:

  • The host IP address where the backup will be stored
  • The username on the backup host
  • The filename of the backup
  • What is to be restored - the options include:
  • Only the Virtual Service configuration
  • Only the information about the Virtual Services will be restored.
  • Only the LoadMaster Base Configuration
  • Only the LoadMaster configuration not including the Virtual Service configuration.
  • Both the Virtual Service and Base Configuration information
  • All the configuration information on the LoadMaster.
Note: Restoring the Virtual Service Configuration on the standby LoadMaster of a HA cluster is not permitted since the Virtual Service configuration is always taken from the Active LoadMaster, and this would overwrite any restored configuration.

Web Address

The LoadMaster is delivered with the WUI configured to be only accessible using the “network” side address.

When the Web Address option is selected, a number of options appear:

  • Use <IP address:Port>: This displays the IP address that will be used by the LoadMaster WUI. Depending on the value that the IP address is set to, this could be a network side or the farm side IP address. To change the IP address, go to the Basic Setup menu item and use the Network Configuration option. For more information, refer to the Basic Setup section.
  • Change Server Port: Change the port used by the interface.
  • Immediately Stop/Start Web Server Access: With this option you can disable or enable access to the LoadMaster WUI.
  • Regenerate Web Server SSL Keys: This option resets the SSL certificates for the WUI. In a HA environment, the certificates get reset for both the local and shared WUI. Therefore, this needs to be run on both LoadMasters in a HA pair (to remove the local certificate). The certificate on the shared WUI will be corrected on both machines after the first invocation.
  • Confirm switch out of CC mode: This option only appears when the LoadMaster is in a specific state. If Self-Signed Certificate Handling (in Certificates & Security > Remote Access in the WUI) is set to an EC mode and Random Number Generation (RNG) fails (for example, if the hardware does not support it like on legacy systems) a message will display on the home screen saying Could not start CC mode - system disabled and the WUI is unusable. This also generates a critical log message saying Cannot initialize RNG, CC mode disabled and an authlog saying Failed to start RNG, CC mode not started.To get out of this mode, you must select the Confirm switch out of CC mode option. This allows the system to work as usual (but not in Common Criteria (CC) mode).

Set Console Timeout

Use this option to set the idle timeout for the console (in minutes).

Regenerate SSH Host Keys

Host keys are kept in sync on High Availability (HA) machines.

Note that in GEO Partnering mode, SSH host keys are not automatically synchronized, because GEO does not use a shared IP address and the information exchange between partners does not depend on SSH access.

Note: Amazon Web Services (AWS) sets its own host key so the regenerate SSH host keys functionality is not available on AWS LoadMasters.
Note: On Azure, there are two authentication mechanisms; password and SSH key. If you have chosen password authentication, it is possible to use the regenerate SSH host keys functionality in the LoadMaster. If you are using Azure SSH key authentication, the regenerate SSH host keys functionality in the LoadMaster is not available.

When you regenerate the LoadMaster's host key, the $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts on all current SSH clients must be updated with the new public key.

The SSH key on LoadMaster firmware versions prior to 7.2.51 (or on LTS versions prior to 7.2.48.3) is always the same. When you upgrade to 7.2.51 (or 7.2.48.3 LTS) or downgrade from 7.2.51 (or 7.2.48.3 LTS), the SSH key will change. After upgrading to 7.2.51 (or 7.2.48.3 LTS), the key is regenerated and will stay the same on 7.2.51 (or 7.2.48.3 LTS) and above until you regenerate it again.