Unable to login to the Cloud Builder appliance after deployment with the configured password

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

At Cloud Builder deployment, if user provides a dictionary based word for the password and proceeds with the deployment, it will result in the user not being able to login, even after Cloud Builder has been successfully deployed.

Environment

VMware Cloud Builder

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x

Cause

There is no Password Compliance Check for admin and root users at the time of deployment of an ova.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution for this.

In the majority of the issues that we see around password issues for the Cloud Builder appliance, the issues arises from low password complexity or by using dictionary words. The OVF installer cannot catch such issues and this results in a successful deployment of the appliance but inability to login later.

Workarounds:

Option 1:

Delete and re-deploy the Cloud Builder OVA  with a sufficiently complex password.

Option 2:

Boot into the Cloud Builder into recovery mode and reset the required credentials.

1. Login to the vCenter/vSphere UI and find the Cloud Builder VM.

2. Select the Cloud Builder VM > under the IP address should be the host FQDN of the ESXi Host on which the VM resides.

3. Using the ESXi host FQDN, connect to the ESXi Host Client UI.

4. Select Virtual Machines > Cloud Builder VM > Edit > VM Options > Boot Options

5. Set the Boot Delay to 10000 milliseconds.

6. Open the VM console and On the right-hand side of the console > Actions > Power > Reset.

7. When you see the Photon screen, hit the 'e' key to get into the GRUB.

8. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the line beginning with linux and add the following to the end of the line

rw init=/bin/bash

9. Press the F10 key to continue booting the VM. 

10. Run the following commands to set the accounts to a temporary password:

passwd admin
passwd root

11. Reboot the Cloud Builder:

reboot -f

12. After a few minutes, SSH into the Cloud Builder with the admin user and su to root using the passwords set in step 10.

13. Now we can reset the credentials to new passwords or a password previously used by using commands mentioned in Step # 10

passwd admin
passwd root

Note: Make a note of what the admin and root passwords were changed to.

14. Change the age of the admin and root credentials:

chage -M 999 admin
chage -M 999 root

Additional Information

Reference KB for SDDC Manager.