Reset the root password in VCF Operations Fleet Management Appliance

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• The root account of the VCF Operations Fleet Management Appliance is locked.
• The root account password has been lost or forgotten.
• Unable to login to Fleet Management Appliance with root account.
• Can't login with root password.
• Password/login issues.

Resolution

To reset the root password for theFleet Management Appliance:

1. Before proceeding with the steps below, take a snapshot of the Fleet Management Appliance. 
   
   • Caution: Do not skip this step
2. Reboot the Fleet Management Appliance.
3. After the Photon OS starts, press the e key to enter the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.
4. Locate the line that begins with the word "Linux".
5. Append these entries to the end of the line -
   

   rw init=/bin/bash

6. Press the F10 key to continue booting.
7. Run the command -
   mount -o remount,rw / 
8. Unlock the 'root' account using below command if it is already locked due to multiple logins with incorrect password.
   /usr/sbin/faillock --user root --reset
9. In the Command prompt, enter the command passwd and provide a new root password (twice for confirmation):
   passwd
10. Unmount the filesystem by running this command (yes, the unmount command is umount  -  it's not a spelling error):
    umount /
11. Reboot the vCenter Server Appliance by running this command:
    reboot -f
12. Verify access the vCenter Server Appliance using the new root password.
13. Remove the snapshot taken initially if applicable.

 

Additional Information

If root account password is expired and you remember it, refer to following KB to reset it:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/422906/vcf-fleet-manager-root-account-disconnec.html

If admin@local account password needs to reset, refer to KB:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=416090