Comments on: Resetting the Root Password on VMware ESX 4.0

By: MaorE

MaorE — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:58:36 +0000

Kopper suggestion correct, just to complete how it should be done…

first see this lame KB:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.docmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1012033

then… just follow Kopper instructions update /etc/pam.d/system-auth-generic

relevent for ESX 4

By: Jason Boche

Jason Boche — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:42:49 +0000

Ed Haletky to arrive on scene in 3…2…1…

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:09:04 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by datacore: ScottLowe: Resetting the Root Password on VMware ESX 4.0 http://bit.ly/8JfdYH Full http://bit.ly/5hEBw9...

By: kopper

kopper — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:19:18 +0000

I had the same issue today

I install 2 ESX for testing on my lab using weird password but I want my partner to use the lab too

so I did this

password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so min=5,0,0,0,0 similar=deny match=0

basically pam_passwdc.so has some settings for minimum letters – complex characters and so on

so I only required a minimum of 5 letters and no complex letters

I was from Pcha¿va3i84_- to manager

check this out
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6111316.html

By: Gleb

Gleb — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:12:25 +0000

Thanks for linking to my article, Scott!
Seems like you’ve gone the longer but certainly more educational way about your password change – thanks for sharing!

By: Chris Edillon

Chris Edillon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:55:57 +0000

FYI the pam_passwdqc module has an option that will only enforce password checking for users, bypassing the root check. at the end of the pam_passwdqc line, add “enforce=users”. instead of enforcing complex passwords, you’ll get a warning that the password is weak, but you’ll still be able to set it to whatever you want. i’m not at an ESX console at the moment, but there should be documentation on the pam_passwdqc options under /usr/share/doc somewhere.

By: J. Carlos

J. Carlos — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:45:59 +0000

Any solution for ESXi 4.0?
Thanks

By: slowe

slowe — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:23:51 +0000

Peter,

Good tips—thanks!

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:05:11 +0000

openssl passwd -1 y0ur_n3w_pw
will give you a correct hash that you can put in /etc/shadow per nates description.

openssl passwd -1
will prompt you for the password and return the hash if you don’t want to type the password on the commandline.

By: Michael McNamara

Michael McNamara — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:35:23 +0000

Scott, you did that on your third day of employment at EMC?

You realize that the ultimate problem was most probably between the keyboard and chair.

Thanks for sharing the fix though!