Resetting the Passwords of an Appliance

The following procedure applies to NSX Manager, NSX Edge, and Cloud Service Manager appliances.

Note: If you have an NSX Manager cluster, resetting the password for the root, admin, or audit user on one NSX Manager will automatically reset the password for the other NSX Managers in the cluster. Note that the synchronization of the password can take several minutes or more.

If you have renamed the user admin or audit, use the new name in the following procedures.

When you reboot an appliance, the GRUB boot menu does not appear by default. The following procedure requires that you have configured GRUB to display the GRUB boot menu. For more information about configuring GRUB and changing the GRUB root password, see "Configure NSX-T Data Center to Display the GRUB Menu at Boot Time" in the NSX-T Data Center Installation Guide.

If you are running NSX-T Data Center 2.5.2 or later and you know the password for root but have forgotten the password for admin or audit, you can reset it using the following procedure:

1. Log in to the appliance as root.
2. For NSX Edge, run the command /etc/init.d/nsx-edge-api-server stop. Otherwise, run the command /etc/init.d/nsx-mp-api-server stop.
3. To reset the password for admin, run the command passwd admin.
4. To reset the password for audit, run the command passwd audit.
5. Run the command touch /var/vmware/nsx/reset_cluster_credentials.
6. For NSX Edge, run the command /etc/init.d/nsx-edge-api-server start. Otherwise, run the command /etc/init.d/nsx-mp-api-server start.

If you have forgotten the root user's password, you can reset it using the following procedure. If you are running NSX-T Data Center 2.5.0 or 2.5.1 and want to reset the password for admin and audit, use the following procedure as well. If you are running NSX-T Data Center 2.5.2 or later you can use the above procedure to reset the password for admin or audit after you reset the password for root.

Procedure

1. Connect to the console of the appliance.
2. Reboot the system.
3. When the GRUB boot menu appears, press the left SHIFT or ESC key quickly. If you wait too long and the boot sequence does not pause, you must reboot the system again.
4. Press e to edit the menu.
   Enter the user name ( root) and the GRUB password for root (not the same as the appliance's user root).
5. Keep the cursor on the Ubuntu selection.
6. Press e to edit the selected option.
7. Search for the line starting with linux.
8. If you are runnning NSX-T Data Center 2.5.0 or 2.5.1, perform the following steps:
   1. Remove all options after root=UUID=<ID number> and add rw single init=/bin/bash after the UUID.
   2. Press Ctrl-X to boot.
   3. When the log messages stop, press Enter.
      You will see the prompt root@(none):/#.
   4. If you are resetting the password for root, run the command passwd.
      If you are resetting the password for admin or audit, run the command passwd <admin or audit user ID>.

      You can run the passwd command multiple times.

   5. Enter a new password and enter it again to confirm.
   6. If you are resetting the password on an NSX Manager, run the command touch /var/vmware/nsx/reset_cluster_credentials.
   7. Run the command sync.
   8. Run the command reboot -f.
9. If you are runnning NSX-T Data Center 2.5.2 or later, perform the following steps:
   1. Add systemd.wants=PasswordRecovery.service to the end of the line.
   2. Press Ctrl-X to boot.
   3. Enter a new password for root and enter it again to confirm.
      After the boot process completes, you can verify the password change by logging in as root with the new password.