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Creating a MOTD

You can create a message of the day (MOTD) to communicate information to authenticated CLI users. The MOTD is displayed in a console session (for cluster access only) or an SSH session (for cluster or SVM access) after a user is authenticated but before the clustershell prompt appears.

  1. Use the security login motd modify command to create a MOTD for the cluster or SVM:
    If you want to...Then...
    Specify a message that is a single lineUse the -message "text" parameter to specify the text.
    Include newlines (also known as end of lines)Use the command without the -message or -uri parameter to launch the interactive mode for editing the MOTD.
    Upload content from a location to use for the MOTDUse the -uri parameter to specify the content's FTP or HTTP location.

    The maximum size for a MOTD is 2,048 bytes, including newlines.

    The security login motd modify man page describes the escape sequences that you can use to enable the MOTD to display dynamically generated content.

    A MOTD created by using the -uri parameter is static. It is not automatically refreshed to reflect subsequent changes of the source content.

    A MOTD created for the cluster is displayed also for all SVM logins by default, along with an SVM-level MOTD that you can create separately for a given SVM.Setting the -is-cluster-message-enabled parameter to false for an SVM prevents the cluster-level MOTD from being displayed for that SVM.

  2. Verify that the MOTD has been created by displaying it with the security login motd show command.

    Specifying the -message parameter with an empty string ( "" ) displays MOTDs that are not configured or have no content.

    See the security login motd modify command man page for a list of parameters to use to enable the MOTD to display dynamically generated content. Be sure to check the man page specific to your ONTAP version.

Examples of creating MOTDs​

The following example uses the noninteractive mode to create a MOTD for the cluster1 cluster:

cluster1::> security login motd modify -message "Greetings!"

cluster1::>

The following example uses the interactive mode to create a MOTD for the svm1 SVM that uses escape sequences to display dynamically generated content:

cluster1::> security login motd modify -vserver svm1

Enter the message of the day for Vserver "svm1".
Max size: 2048. Enter a blank line to terminate input. Press Ctrl-C to abort.
0        1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
Welcome to the \n SVM.  Your user ID is '\N'. Your last successful login was \L.

cluster1::>

The following example displays the MOTDs that have been created:

cluster1::> security login motd show
Vserver: cluster1
Is the Cluster MOTD Displayed?: true
Message
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greetings!

Vserver: svm1
Is the Cluster MOTD Displayed?: true
Message
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the \n <span className="ph">SVM</span>.  Your user ID is '\N'. Your last successful login was \L.

2 entries were displayed.

cluster1::>