Best Practices for Securing Your Nutanix Cluster: Passwords and Beyond

As a Nutanix administrator, you understand the importance of securing your cluster to protect your data and ensure the integrity of your systems. One critical aspect of security is password management. In this blog post, we’ll explore best practices for passwords in Nutanix, including how to change them frequently, disable expiration, and manage historical records. We’ll also discuss what to do if you accidentally lock your admin account or need more information about failed login attempts.

Changing Passwords Frequently

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Nutanix recommends changing passwords frequently to ensure maximum security. The default policy requires password changes every 30 days, but you can modify this parameter based on your needs. To change your admin password, execute the following command in a SSH session:

“`bash

sudo chage -m 0 -M 99999 -I -1 -E -1 admin

“`

This command will reset the password expiration date to 30 days ago and update the password history.

Disabling Password Expiration

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If you prefer not to change passwords frequently, you can disable the password expiration policy altogether. To do so, comment out the following line in the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file:

“`bash

# pam_password.so

“`

This will prevent the system from enforcing a password expiration policy. However, we strongly advise against disabling this feature, as it can significantly weaken your security posture.

Managing Historical Records

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The Nutanix Prism history is stored locally on each node in the file /home/nutanix/.nutanix_history. You can modify this file and remove lines you don’t want to see, or you can delete the entire history by executing the following command:

“`bash

rm ~/.nutanix_history

“`

If you accidentally lock your admin account, you can unlock it using the following command in a SSH session:

“`bash

sudo faillock –user admin –reset

“`

This command will reset the failure lock for the admin user.

What to Do About Failed Login Attempts

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If you need more information about failed login attempts, you can follow these steps:

1. SSH into any CVM in the cluster with the nutanix user.

2. Execute the following command to verify which CVM is the Prism leader:

“`bash

curl localhost:2019/prism/leader && echo SSH to the Prism leader CVM.

“`

3. Use the following command to filter the logs for failed login attempts:

“`bash

grep “An unsuccessful login attempt was made with username” data/logs/prism_gateway.log

“`

This will show you which IP addresses have made failed login attempts.

Conclusion

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Security is a critical aspect of any IT environment, and password management is a crucial part of that security. By following these best practices for passwords in Nutanix, you can ensure the integrity of your data and protect your systems from unauthorized access. Remember to change your passwords frequently, disable expiration only if necessary, manage historical records carefully, and be aware of failed login attempts.

We hope this blog post has provided you with valuable information on how to secure your Nutanix cluster. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.