CyberArk is unable to rotate vCenter Server root password using 'passwd' command

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

The CyberArk logs will have below entries where it is unable to run "passwd" command on the vCenter Server Shell.

MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | Info -> bx :: ak -> Trying to match the following prompts:
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | Info -> bx :: ak -> 1.UnknownUser: 'User unknown.* |Unknown user. *|User.* does not exist|user .* 
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | Info -> bx :: ak -> 2.01dPassword: 'Old password: |Enter existing login password: |\(current\) UNIX 
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | Info -> bx :: ak -> 3.NewPassword: 'New Password: New UNIX Password: |Enter new password:'
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | Info -> bx :: ak -> 4.PasswdCant TakeUsername: 'Only root can specify a user name |You may not view
Unknown command: 'passwd' |
Command>
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM | ERROR -> c :: d a6: Did not find any matching prompt for
Unknown command: "passwd"
Command>'

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

By default, when connecting to the vCenter Server Shell, the terminal connects to the Appliance Shell. As a result, CyberArk attempts to run the "passwd" command directly on the Appliance Shell, causing the command to fail.

To resolve this, CyberArk needs to connect directly to the vCenter Server's BASH Shell to execute the "passwd" command.

 

Resolution

To configure the vCenter Server to connect directly to the BASH shell when accessed via SSH, run the following command from BASH shell as a root user:

chsh -s /bin/bash

Additional Information

To revert the changes by making vCenter Server to directly connect to Appliance Shell, run the following command from BASH shell as a root user.

chsh -s /bin/appliancesh