SDDC Manager displays vIDM accounts as "Disconnected" and vIDM appliance boots into Emergency Mode due to incorrect root shell path

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

In a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment, users may encounter the following symptoms:

One or more VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) accounts are marked as Disconnected in the SDDC Manager UI.

Attempts to Remediate or update passwords via SDDC Manager fail with errors.

The operationsmanager.log on the SDDC Manager reports a CommandExecuterException: SSH: Failed to establish SSH session for the affected vIDM nodes.  

The vIDM primary node is inaccessible via SSH or standard console login.

When observing the virtual machine console, the appliance is found to have booted into Emergency Mode.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation (SDDC Manager)

VMware Identity Manager 3.3.x

Cause

The root shell path in the /etc/passwd file contains a typographical error instead of (/bin/bash). This invalid path prevents the system from loading the appropriate shell for the root user during the boot process.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, correct the typographical error in the passwd file:

Access the appliance command line via the virtual machine console while in emergency mode.

Open the /etc/passwd file using a text editor: vi /etc/passwd

Locate the root user entry and change the shell path to /bin/bash.

Save and close the file.

Force a reboot of the appliance: reboot -f

Verify that the appliance boots normally and root login is successful.