Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch CLI Software Configuration Guide (OL-16597-01, July 2009)

Characteristics of Strong Passwords
A strong password has the following characteristics:
• At least eight characters long
• Does not contain many consecutive characters (such as "abcd")
• Does not contain many repeating characters (such as "aaabbb")
• Does not contain dictionary words
• Does not contain proper names
• Contains both uppercase and lowercase characters
• Contains numbers
The following are examples of strong passwords:
• If2CoM18
• 2009AsdfLkj30
• Cb1955S21
Clear text passwords can contain alphanumeric characters only. Special characters, such as the dollar sign
($) or the percent sign (%), are not allowed.
Note
If a password is trivial (such as a short, easy-to-decipher password), the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch
will reject your password configuration. Be sure to configure a strong password as shown in the sample
configuration. Passwords are case sensitive.
Tip
About User Roles
User roles contain rules that define the operations allowed for the user who is assigned the role. Each user
role can contain multiple rules and each user can have multiple roles. For example, if role1 allows access only
to configuration operations, and role2 allows access only to debug operations, then users who belong to both
role1 and role2 can access configuration and debug operations. You can also limit access to specific VSANs,
VLANs and interfaces.
The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch provides the following default user roles:
• network-admin (superuser)—Complete read and write access to the entire Cisco Nexus 5000 Series
switch.
• network-operator—Complete read access to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch.
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch CLI Software Configuration Guide
316 OL-16597-01
Configuring User Accounts and RBAC
Characteristics of Strong Passwords