This article provides steps to resolve login issues to the vCenter Server Appliance shell using the root account after a password reset.
For root password reset instructions see:
Symptoms (Could be one of the below):
/var/log/audit/sshinfo.log show the below Errors:-
Password change attempt from the root account
Log Message :- password changed for root
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:account): account sso-user has expired (failed to change password)
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: sso-user : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/var/lib/sso-user ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/passwd root
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by sso-user(uid=65536)
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> passwd[1541160] pam_unix(passwd:chauthtok): password changed for root
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Password getting expired within a short span of time (In some cases less than 2 minutes) :-
Error message :- account sso-user has expired (failed to change password)
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:account): account sso-user has expired (failed to change password)
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: sso-user : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/root ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/appliancesh
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by sso-user(uid=65536)
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
YEAR-MONTH-DATE:TIME:XX.XXXXXX+00:00 <vcenter name> sudo: pam_unix(sudo:account): account sso-user has expired (failed to change password)
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.x
Prerequisite:
Before following the steps listed below reset the vCenter root account using the KB :- 322247 so that the SSH login via root account login succeeds.