About the Management Console
The Management Console allows you to manage the low-level configuration of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For example, you can complete initial setup, manage licensing and low-level settings, configure authentication, schedule maintenance windows, and monitor your instance.
You can always reach the Management Console using your GitHub Enterprise Server instance's IP address, even when the instance is in maintenance mode, or there is a critical application failure or hostname or SSL misconfiguration.
To access the Management Console, you can use the root site administrator password established during initial setup of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance or log in as a Management Console user. For more information, see Accessing the Management Console. You must also be able to connect to the virtual machine host on port 8443. If you're having trouble reaching the Management Console, please check intermediate firewall and security group configurations.
The Management Console password hash is stored in /data/user/common/secrets.conf. If high availability or clustering is configured, the file is automatically synced from the primary node to any additional nodes. Any change to the primary's password will automatically be replicated to all of the instance's nodes. For more information about high availability, see About high availability configuration.
When someone performs an action in the Management Console via the web interface or REST API, an event appears in the audit log. For more information, see Audit log events for your enterprise.
Examples of activities in the Management Console
In the Management Console, you can perform administrative tasks for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, including:
- Initial setup: Walk through the initial setup process when first launching your GitHub Enterprise Server instance by visiting your GitHub Enterprise Server instance's IP address in your browser.
- Identity and access management: Improve the security of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance by creating dedicated user accounts for the Management Console. For more information, see Managing access to the Management Console.
- Configuring authentication policies for the Management Console: Set rate limits for login attempts, and the lockout duration if someone exceeds the rate limit. For more information, see Managing access to the Management Console.
- Configuring basic settings for your instance: Configure DNS, hostname, SSL, user authentication, email, monitoring services, and log forwarding on the Settings page.
- Scheduling maintenance windows: Take your GitHub Enterprise Server instance offline while performing maintenance using the Management Console or administrative shell.
- Troubleshooting: Generate a support bundle or view high level diagnostic information.
- License management: View or update your GitHub Enterprise license.