Dell EMC Unity, VNXe: Issues with special characters in admin password when using UEMCLI (User Correctable)

When using UEMCLI with VNXe and Dell EMC Unity arrays on Linux and Microsoft operating systems, some special characters in passwords will be interpreted as determined by the OS and not as part of the password string.

When this occurs on a Linux OS, the below error is seen (note the $ in the password):   

[user@localhost ~]$ uemcli -d <IP> -u linuxtest -p xRz4bJH$Wxv /sys/general show
Storage system address: <IP>
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

Operation failed. Error code: 0x6000001
You do not have access to perform the requested operation. (Error Code:0x6000001)

In Microsoft Windows, the "$" is not treated differently, but a double-quote is. When a password contains a double-quote, no error is reported but instead of the expected command output, the help syntax is provided:   

C:\Users\user>uemcli -d <IP> -u microsofttest -p Pass"word123! /sys/general show
[Get help on client options]
uemcli -help {CMDHELP | CMD | -upload | -download |
              -version | -saveUser | -removeUser | -removeAllUsers |
              -default | -certList | -certDel | -certClear |
              -certImport}

This is because certain characters have special meaning to the operating system or represent something other than a simple character in a string.  

This is not a bug with Unisphere CLI, but a function of the operating system.

Check the OS vendor's documentation for more information regarding special characters and escaping.

The simplest way to avoid this is to use the -securePassword switch instead of the -p switch in UEMCLI. This prompts the user to enter the password and it will not be visible on screen, or in the logs:   

[user@localhost ~]$ uemcli -d <IP> -u linuxtest -securePassword /sys/general show
Password:               <<<<<<<< password is not printed on screen when typing
Storage system address: <IP>
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

1:    System name           = Unity Array
      Model                 = Unity 300
      Platform type         = EMC Storage System
      Product serial number = CKM00161XXXXXX
      Auto failback         = on
      Health state          = Major failure (20)

If using Unisphere CLI primarily for scripting, follow the recommendations listed below. The standard method of escaping any special characters is to put a backslach (\) in front of the special character. This method works in both the Windows and Linux OS. 

To work around this in Linux, enclose the password in single quotes and escape the special character with a backslash (using only single quotes will not work):  

Enclosed in single quotes, and escaped special character, command succeeds:   

[user@localhost ~]$ uemcli -d <IP> -u linuxtest -p 'xRz4bJH\$Wxv' /sys/general show  
Storage system address: <IP>
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

1:    System name           = Unity Array
      Model                 = Unity 300
      Platform type         = EMC Storage System
      Product serial number = CKM00161XXXXXX
      Auto failback         = on
      Health state          = Major failure (20)

Enclosed in single quotes with no escape, command fails:   

[user@localhost ~]$ uemcli -d <IP> -u linuxtest -p 'xRz4bJH$Wxv' /sys/general show
Storage system address: <IP>
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

Operation failed. Error code: 0x6000001
You do not have access to perform the requested operation. (Error Code:0x6000001)

To work around this on Windows operating systems, the only thing necessary is to use a backslash and escape the special character that is causing the command to fail. In this example, the double quote character (") is causing the password to fail, so it is escaped with a backslash:  

C:\Users\user>uemcli -d <IP> -u microsofttest -p Pass\"word123! /sys/general show
Storage system address: <IP>
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

1:    System name           = Unity Array
      Model                 = Unity 300
      Platform type         = EMC Storage System
      Product serial number = CKM00161XXXXXX
      Auto failback         = on
      Health state          = Major failure (2