Cannot change the password of [email protected] from the vSphere Web Client dropdown menu

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The Change Password option is greyed out in the dropdown menu when logging in as SSO Admin (e.g. [email protected])
• Unable to change the password as an Administrator.
• A standard user logging in to the vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) server from the vSphere Web Client can perform a password change from the dropdown menu.

Environment

vCenter Server 8.0

Resolution

Steps to change the SSO administrator password:

1. Log into the vSphere Web Client with  SSO administrator user
2. Click Administration.
3. Click Users and Groups under Single Sign-On.
4. Right-click Administrator under the Users tab.
5. Click Edit User.
6. Change the password for the Administrator.
   
   Note: If the Edit User dialog box for the [email protected] is greyed out, reset the password from vCenter SSH Session.

   • vCenter Server Appliance:

     1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance via SSH. For more information, see Enable or Disable SSH Administrator Login on the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in the vCenter Server and Host Management Guide.
     2. Open the vdcadmintool service tool with this command:
        
        /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/vdcadmintool
        
        This console loads:
        =================
        Please select:
        0. exit
        1. Test LDAP connectivity
        2. Force start replication cycle
        3. Reset account password
        4. Set log level and mask
        5. Set vmdir state
        ================================
     3. Press 3 to enter the Reset account password option.
     4. When prompted for the Account DN, enter:
        cn=administrator,cn=users,dc=vSphere,dc=local
        
     5. A new password is generated. Use this password to log in to the [email protected] account.
        Note: Review the password to ensure it is compliant with VMware's list of unsupported characters.

Additional Information

Note: In an Enhanced Linked Mode setup, the SSO Admin ([email protected]) password needs to be changed on a single vCenter Server. The new password will automatically replicate to all other linked vCenter Servers for future logins.