This article will explain the steps to unlock or reset the vCloud Availability root account. There are a couple of scenarios where you might need this.
For example when the account is locked out after too many fault attempts you will get “Access denied” when you login:
In my case I was just being stupid.. I forgot to update the new password in my SSH client after I had to reset the password during the first boot.
This caused my root account to be locked out.
During the initial deployment of the vCAv management appliance, you have to enter a root password as shown below:
After the deployment has finished, you can login by navigating to https://<FQDN>/ui/admin.
Now you have to reset the password you entered minutes ago.
When you do, don’t forget to save it somewhere safe! 😉
Enough introduction..
Let’s get started with the steps required to unlock or reset vCloud Availability root account!
Reset vCloud Availability root account
vCloud Availability is build on PhotonOS. The first step we have to take is reboot the appliance and enter the GRUB menu by hitting ‘e’ during the boot.
In the GRUB menu, add “rw init =/bin/bash” to the line starting with Linux.. and hit F10
The appliance will boot in the bash shell now.
After you finished these steps, you can logon to the portal and SSH again with the new password.
Unlock the vCAv root account
If you only want to unlock the account without setting a new password, the steps are almost equal.
Replace the step where you type “passwd root” with “/sbin/pam_tally2 -r -u root” to unlock the account.
After you finished these steps, you can logon to the portal and SSH again with the unlocked root password.
Other posts you might like:
- Upgrade to vCloud Director 10 appliance
- Deploy vCloud Director 9.7 with 3 cells
- Setup a NFS share for vCloud Director with Windows Server 2019
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