Initializing the blade appliance

To initialize the blade appliance when it is started for the first time, use the following procedure.

The first time that you start the blade appliance is different from any subsequent startup. You will be asked to configure operating modes, review and accept the licensing agreement, and change the password for the administration (admin) account. On subsequent startups from a serial connection, you will not be prompted to perform these initialization tasks. You will instead be prompted to log in with a local account: if this account has an expired password, you will be prompted to change it.

To initialize the blade appliance during the first startup, complete the following steps:

Establish a management interface connection with the blade appliance (see Connection requirements).
If the blade appliance is not on, turn it on. See Turning on the blade appliance for information and instructions. Wait for a few minutes for the blade appliance to start. When the blade appliance is ready to be initialized, the screen displays information about the operational modes.
Attention: Use care when making your operating mode selections. If you choose a wrong mode for your environment, the only way to change it is to re-initialize the blade appliance.
Follow the prompts to enable the appropriate operational modes for your blade appliance (see Considerations for operational modes for additional information). During this process you will:
- Read the general cautions that apply to all operational modes.
- Read information about each operational mode.
- Enable or disable each operational mode for the blade appliance. You will be asked to confirm your selections.
The screen displays the license agreement.
Read and accept the license agreement. The screen displays information about the admin password.
Attention: Do not misplace the new password for the admin account. If you misplace this password, security best practice dictates that you should return the appliance to IBM Support to reset this password.
Review the admin password information; then, enter a new password at the prompt. admin is the name of a local user account. The owner of this account can perform all tasks on the appliance.
Enter the new password again at the confirmation prompt.
When prompted, start the installation wizard.
Follow the prompts to complete the base configuration.

After defining the base firmware configuration, the screen displays information specific to your blade appliance, similar to the following:

               Welcome to DataPower XI50 console configuration. 
Copyright IBM Corporation 1999-2010 

Version: XI50.3.8.1.0 build 123456 on 2010/07/01 12:00:00
Serial number: 06D0875

The previous sample shows the following information:

The appliance is a DataPower XI50B appliance
The firmware version running on the appliance is 3.8.1.0 at the 123456 build level, built at 12:00 PM on July 1, 2010
The serial number for the appliance is 06D0875

If you were not able to complete the firmware installation, you can use the startup command to invoke the installation wizard. See Defining the base configuration manually for details.