VMware HCX Password Policy: Maximum Character Length and Best Practices

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

This article contains information on password length for HCX admin account

Environment

HCX 4.11

Cause

To align with corporate security standards, customers may be required to create 25 character or longer passwords for the HCX admin account.

25 character or longer passwords are fully supported and recommended as a security best practice for both the admin (Appliance Management) and root (OS-level) accounts.

Resolution

VMware HCX Managers (Connector and Cloud) are built on Photon OS. The password policies are governed by the underlying Linux PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) configuration.

Password Length and Support:

• Maximum Length: Photon OS typically supports a maximum password length of 127 characters.
• Character Classes: By default, HCX enforces complexity. Passwords should generally include a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters.
• API Authentication: Long passwords (e.g., 25+ characters) are supported for API authentication via the HCX Manager.

Changing the HCX admin password does not require an HCX service restart. 

Re-registration or re-pairing with vCenter/NSX will not be required. 

Additional Information

Reset root/admin password for PhotonOS based HCX Manager

Updating System Passwords