17-4
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Configuration Guide using ASDM
Chapter17 Configuring Basic Settings
Configuring the Master Passphrase
To manually set the date and time for the ASA, perform the following steps:
Step1 In ASDM, choose Configuration > Device Setup > System Time > Clock.
Step2 Choose the time zone from the drop-down list. This setting specifies the time zone as GMT plus or minus
the appropriate number of hours. If you select the Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, or Pacific
Time zone, then the time adjusts automatically for daylight savings time, from 2:00 a.m. on the second
Sunday in March to 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November.
Note Changing the time zone on the ASA may drop the connection to intelligent SSMs.
Step3 Click the Date drop-down list to display a calendar. Then find the correct date using the following
methods:
•Click the name of the month to display a list of months, then click the desired month. The calendar
updates to that month.
•Click the year to change the year. Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the years, or type a
year in the entry field.
•Click the arrows to the right and left of the month and year to scroll the calendar forward and
backward one month at a time.
•Click a day on the calendar to set the date.
Step4 Enter the time manually in hours, minutes, and seconds.
Step5 Click Update Display Time to update the time shown in the bottom right corner of the ASDM pane. The
current time updates automatically every ten seconds.
Configuring the Master Passphrase
This section describes how to configure the master passphrase and includes the following topics:
•Information About the Master Passphrase, page17-4
•Licensing Requirements for the Master Passphrase, page17-5
•Guidelines and Limitations, page17-5
•Adding or Changing the Master Passphrase, page17-5
•Disabling the Master Passphrase, page17-6
•Recovering the Master Passphrase, page 17-7
•Feature History for the Master Passphrase, page 17-7

Information About the Master Passphrase

The master passphrase feature allows you to securely store plain text passwords in encrypted format. The
master passphrase provides a key that is used to universally encrypt or mask all passwords, without
changing any functionality. Features that implement the master passphrase include the following:
•OSPF