44. System Administration¶

SolarNode runs on SolarNodeOS, a Debian Linux-based operating system. If you are already familiar with Debian Linux, or one of the other Linux distributions built from Debian like Ubuntu Linux, you will find it pretty easy to get around in SolarNodeOS.

44.1 System User Account¶

SolarNodeOS ships with a solar user account that you can use to log into the operating system. The default password is solar but may have been changed by a system administrator.

Warning

The solar user account is not related to the account you log into the SolarNode Setup App with.

44.1.1 Change system user account password¶

To change the system user account's password, use the passwd command.

Changing the system user account password

$ passwd
Changing password for solar.
Current password:
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully

Tip

Changing the solar user's password is highly recommended when you first deploy a node.

44.2 Administrator Access¶

Some commands require administrative permission. The solar user can execute arbitrary commands with administrative permission by prefixing the command with sudo. For example the reboot command will reboot SolarNodeOS, but requires administrative permission.

Run a command as a system administrator

$ sudo reboot

The sudo command will prompt you for the solar user's password and then execute the given command as the administrator user root.

The solar user can also become the root administrator user by way of the su command:

Gain system administrative privledges with su

$ sudo su -

Once you have become the root user you no longer need to use the sudo command, as you already have administrative permissions.

44.3 Network Access with SSH¶

SolarNodeOS comes with an SSH service active, which allows you to remotely connect and access the command line, using any SSH client.