Reset password on a IBM RSA II

I got the hand on three nice servers built by IBM. All of them include a Remote Supervisor Adapter II slimline (RSA II) for system management. There was a unknown password on it and I had to bring the RSA II back to it's factory default.

I followed several ways how to do it and read many forum posts about it but it took a long time until it worked for me (Don't try MPCLI, never got a connection to my RSA II!). So hopefully this short how-to will bring you back access to your RSA II too!

This manual uses a Linux live system loaded from CD, so you don't have to touch your already installed operating system!

To follow this instructions you have to download the following files:

• IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II Daemon v1.53 for Linux download the file ibm_svc_rsa2_hlp253a_linux_32-64.tgz
• IBM Advanced Settings Utility (ASU) for Linux download the file ibm_utl_asu-3.60-asut69k.i386.rpm
• Fedora 14 live CD iso image

1. Burn the Fedora iso image to a CD rewritable (to save the environment), else use a normal CD-R
2. Copy the other downloaded files to a USB memory stick
3. Boot your IBM system and select the CD as boot media
4. Wait until the Fedora live system is finished booting
5. Plug-in the memory stick and open it in a file browser
6. Open ibm_svc_rsa2_hlp253a_linux_32-64.tgz go to RPMS and extract ibmusbasm-1.53-2.rhel5.i686.rpm
7. Install (by double clicking on it): ibmusbasm-1.53-2.rhel5.i686.rpm
8. Install ( by double clicking on it): ibm_utl_asu-3.60-asut69k.i386.rpm
9. Open a terminal (In the starter menu under system tools)
10. Get root, the live CD does not ask for a password, type and press enter: “su”
11. Install libusb, type and press enter: “yum install libusb-devel”
12. Reload ibmasm daemon, type and press enter: “ibmspdown && ibmspup”
13. Wait about 10s
14. Make sure it was loaded correctly, type and press enter: “tail /var/log/messages” and you should find a line: localhost ibmasm: V1.51 IBM RSA II 32-bit device support loaded. when not, write me an email.
15. Go to the asu install directory, type and press enter: “cd /opt/ibm/toolscenter/asu”
16. Try to get information from your RSA II, type and press enter: "./asu show --group rsa" You should get a long list of values.
17. Revert your RSA II back to factory defaults, type and press enter: “./asu resetrsa”
18. Connect the RSA II to your network or computer, it is accessible now on the IP 192.168.70.125 with the default user USERID and the password PASSW0RD (with a digit '0', not a char 'o')