Renaming a local user account (admin, root, audit) in NSX Environments

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

This article describes the steps to rename/change the default username for admin and audit users.
Note: Specifying a new username for the root user is not supported.

Environment

VMware NSX

Resolution

While changing the admin and audit users is supported, and it does not cause operational impact for the NSX Manager, some scripts and automation strictly require the customers to have the default username as Admin, requiring the username to be changed back to admin. Example: "Unable to determine the NSX version. Please ensure the IP address and password is correct" error when running CARR script

Follow the steps below to rename/change the admin and audit user:

1. Log in to the NSX Manager appliance using the admin user.
2. Run the command:
   set user admin username <new-admin-user>
set user audit username <new-audit-user>
   For more information, access: Manage Local User’s Password or Name Using the CLI
3. Log in back to NSX Manager UI, using the new username.

Additional Information

Manage Local User’s Password or Name Using the CLI

Attempting to change/rename the root user will result in the following error:

nsxcli> set user root username root1
% Specifying a new username for the root user is not supported