Reset ESXI root password that is a part of SDDC manager

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

• Forgot ESXI root password.
• Unable to login into ESXi host with the stored root credentials on SDDC.

Environment

• ESXi 7.x
• ESXi 8.x

Resolution

1. SSH into the SDDC Manager with vcf user and su to root
2. Create a token on the SDDC Manager.   

   TOKEN=$(curl -d '{"username" : "<sso_username>", "password" : "<sso_password>"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://127.0.0.1/v1/tokens | jq -r '.accessToken')

3. Pull the credentials from SDDC.   

   curl -k -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer "$TOKEN"" --insecure 'https://localhost/v1/system/credentials/service' | json_pp | less

4. Login to the ESXI with the svc-vcf password for the ESXI retrieved from the above steps 
5. Type passwd root 
6. Set the new root password