# Changing passwords

Set the Dashboard, SSH and IDE passwords through environment variables.

A password that you do not set is generated as a strong random secret. Set your own with `Zato_Password` before the container starts.

## Set a password through an environment variable {#set-a-password-through-an-environment-variable}

Export `Zato_Password` before you start the container, and the value becomes the password of the Dashboard's `admin` user as well as the SSH, IDE and load balancer users:

```bash
export Zato_Password="<Your Password>"
sudo docker run -e Zato_Password=$Zato_Password ...
```

You can then log in to the Dashboard at [http://localhost:8183](http://localhost:8183) with the username `admin` and the password that you set.

To set each password individually, use the per-account variables - `Zato_Dashboard_Password`, `Zato_SSH_Password` and `Zato_IDE_Password` - all of them are in the [environment variables reference](https://zato.io/tutorials/devops/env-variables.html).

In Docker Desktop, set the variable in the container's start form:

## See also {#see-also}

- [Security defaults](https://zato.io/docs/admin/security/defaults.html) - The accounts that the passwords belong to
- [Environment variables](https://zato.io/tutorials/devops/env-variables.html) - Every password variable, with its default and scope
- [Dashboard authentication](https://zato.io/docs/admin/dashboard-auth.html) - How people sign in with the password that you set

## Learn more {#learn-more}

- [Production checklist](https://zato.io/docs/admin/production-checklist.html) - What to confirm before an environment takes real traffic
- [Audit log](https://zato.io/docs/admin/audit-log/) - Every request, response and error, and what you can do with them afterwards
- [Health checks](https://zato.io/docs/admin/health-checks.html) - Have Zato ping your outgoing connections instead of waiting for traffic to fail
- [Logging](https://zato.io/docs/admin/logging.html) - What is written where, and how to ship it to Splunk, Loki, Elastic or Datadog
- [GitOps with enmasse](https://zato.io/docs/admin/enmasse.html) - Keep the whole environment in git as YAML and import it anywhere