Configuring Management Console

After you complete the steps in Installing [%=Vertica.MC%] (MC), you need to configure it through a client browser connection.

After you complete the steps in Installing Management Console (MC), you need to configure it through a client browser connection. An MC configuration assistant walks you through creating the Linux MC super administrator account, storage locations, and other settings that MC needs to run. Information you provide during the configuration process is stored in the /opt/vconsole/config/console.properties file.

If you need to change settings after the configuration assistant ends, such as port assignments, use the Home > MC Settings page.

How to configure MC

  1. Open a browser session.

  2. Enter the IP address or host name of the server on which you installed MC and include the default MC port 5450. For example, enter the following using a IP address:

    https://10.20.30.40:5450/
    

    Or enter the following for a host name:

    https://hostname:5450/
    
  3. Follow the configuration assistant.

About authentication for the MC super administrator

In the final step of the configuration process, you choose an authentication method for the MC super administrator. You can decide to have MC authenticate the MC super and complete the process, or you can choose LDAP.

If you choose LDAP, provide the following information for the newly-created MC super administrator:

  • Corporate LDAP service host (IP address or host name).

  • LDAP server running port (default 389).

  • LDAP DN (distinguished name) for base search/lookup/authentication criteria. At a minimum, specify the dc (domain component) field. For example: dc=vertica, dc=com generates a unique identifier of the organization, like the corporate Web URL vertica.com

  • Default search path for the organization unit (ou). For example: ou=sales, ou=engineering.

  • Search attribute for the user name (uid), common name (cn), and so on. For example, uid=jdoe, cn=Jane Doe.

  • Binding DN and password for the MC super administrator.

  • In most cases, you provide the "Bind as administrator" fields, information used to establish the LDAP service connection for all LDAP operations, like search. Instead of using the administrator user name and password, the MC administrator could use his or her own LDAP credentials, as long as that user has search privileges.

If you choose bind anonymously

Unless you specifically configure the LDAP server to deny anonymous binds, the underlying LDAP protocol will not cause MC's Configure Authentication process to fail if you choose "Bind anonymously" for the MC administrator. Before you use anonymous bindings for LDAP authentication on MC, be sure that your LDAP server is configured to explicitly disable/enable this option. For more information, see the article on Infusion Technology Solutions and the OpenLDAP documentation on access control.

What happens next

Shortly after you click Finish, you should see a status in the browser. However, you might see only an empty page for several seconds. During this brief period, MC runs as the local user 'root' long enough to bind to port number 5450. Then MC switches to the MC super administrator account that you just created, restarts MC, and displays the MC login page.

Managing client connections

Each client session to MC uses a connection from MaxClientSessions, a database configuration parameter. This parameter determines the maximum number of sessions that can run on a single database cluster node. Sometimes multiple MC users, mapped to the same database account, are concurrently monitoring the Overview and Activity pages.