Getting Started

In order to use the CTERA Portal, you need an Internet browser. You can use any of the latest two releases of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.

CTERA Portal provides an administration web interface for:

• Configuring and monitoring the portal
• Managing the servers on which CTERA Portal is installed
• Creating and configuring virtual portals (team and reseller portal)
• Provisioning the virtual portals

Each virtual team or reseller portal also has its own administration interface. As a global administrator, you can access the global administration interface and each virtual portal's administration interface.

Signing In to the Global Administration User Interface

As an administrator, you have access to the administration Web interface. This interface lets you perform administration tasks for all virtual portals and also enables you to perform specific administration tasks for a specific portal.

The interface includes the following views:
Administration view – Enables you to perform administration tasks that are global, affecting all virtual portals. The tasks described in this guide are performed in this view.
Virtual portal view – Enables you to perform administration tasks for each virtual portal. Administrators of a virtual portal can perform the same tasks via their portal administration interface, which is almost identical to this view. For information about administering a team virtual portal, see the Team Administrator Guide.

To sign in to the administration interface you use the IP address of one of the CTERA Portal servers or, after the DNS service is set up, you can use it with the portal's DNS suffix and, if changed from the default, the HTTPS access port number.

To sign in to the global administration interface:

1. In a Web browser open http://<virtualportal_name>.<DNS_Suffix>/admin
   where, virtualportal_name is the name of any one of the virtual portals defined in CTERA Portal, and DNS_Suffix is the DNS suffix for the whole CTERA Portal installation.
   This opens the interface to the specific portal's view.
   Note

   If the portal is set to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS, CTERA Portal redirects the browser to the HTTPS page. It is also possible to set the HTTPS access port to be different from the standard 443. In this case, the address is:
   https://<virtualportal_name>.<DNS_Suffix>:<HTTPS_port>/admin where HTTPS_port is a customized port. See The HTTPS Access Port.
   For example, to connect to Example’s administration portal using HTTPS port 2222, use the following address: https://CompanyPortal.example.com:2222/admin.

   Or,
   Open http://<Portal_Server_IP>/admin where Portal Server IP is the IP address of one of the CTERA Portal servers. For example, to connect to the global administration view of a portal whose server IP address is 192.168.10.10, open http://192.168.10.10
   This method enables you to gain access to the administration view, if the DNS service is not set up.
   
   
   After connecting, you can switch to any specific virtual portal view or back to the administration view, as described in Navigating Between Portal Views.
   The CTERA Portal opens, displaying the sign in page.
   
   If SAML Single Sign-on (SSO) is enabled, on your first access to the portal you are redirected to the SAML identity provider's login page. On subsequent log ins, you directly access the portal.
   If CAC, Common Access Card, is implemented at the site, the login page is skipped if the card access is authorized.
2. Enter your administrator user name and password and click SIGN IN. If you are redirected to an identity provider's login page, enter your credentials there. The identity provider processes your authentication.
   The administration interface opens displaying the Main > Dashboard page of the administration view or a specific portal.
   
   For information about administering a team portal, see the Team Administrator Guide.