Unlocking the VMware Cloud Director appliance root account

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on manually unlocking the root account for the VMware Cloud Director appliance.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 9.x
VMware Cloud Director 10.x

Cause

After three incorrect login attempts, the root account will lock. New attempts can be made after 15 minutes. If it is not desirable to wait 15 minutes, the root account can be manually unlocked.

Resolution

Note:

• Cloud Director 10.6 and later will leverage Photon OS 4.0.
• Cloud Director 10.5.1.1 and earlier will leverage Photon OS 3.0.

 

To unlock the root account of the VMware Cloud Director appliance:

1. Reboot the VMware Cloud Director appliance while connected to console in vSphere.
2. When the Photon bootloader image appears, press e.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the line beginning with "linux" and append "rw init=/bin/bash" to it.
   
   For example:
   
   
    
4. Press Ctrl-X or F10 to start the boot process. The system will boot to a bash shell.
5. Unlock the root account by running the command specific to the version of Photon OS:
   1. Photon OS 3.0:
      1. pam_tally2 --reset --user root
   2. Photon OS 4.0:
      1. faillock --user root --reset
6. Reboot the appliance by running command:
   1. reboot -f.