How to reset a forgotten Workflow or ServiceDesk server Administrator User account password?

Products

• Workflow Solution
• ServiceDesk

Issue/Introduction

Administrator User account is the built-in Process Manager Portal administrator account with userid 'admin user' and primary email address of which was set to during installation (default is [email protected]). How to reset a forgotten password for this account?

 

Resolution

Resetting a forgotten password for Administrator User is not recommended and the process can be a little finicky. Before attempting this, make sure you have backup of both database as well as ProcessManager web.config.

1. Replace the admin user password (the binary value containing encrypted password) in the database with a known admin user password. The default 'admin' as password is good for this. Use this query to update the password in the ProcessManager database:

UPDATE [User]
SET
[Password] = 0xc7ad44cbad762a5da0a452f9e854fdc1e0e7a52a38015f23f3eab1d80b931dd472634dfac71cd34ebc35d16ab7fb8a90c81f975113d6c7538dc69dd8de9077ec,
PerUserSalt = 0
WHERE UserID = 'admin user'

Note that after changing the password later, per-user salt will be enabled again.

2. Follow KB article TECH146586 to properly change the password and apply the configuration. Short version of the steps:
- Run %ProgramFiles%\Symantec\Workflow\ProcessManager\ChangeAdminPassword.exe (that updates the password both in the database as well as web.config), enter 'admin' as old password (it is checked against the one in database) and set the new password
- After changing the password using the utility open LocalMachineInfo Editor, select the server - usually called "(local)" - click Edit button and change the password there as well. This will allow the designer and other local tools to connect to the portal web services.