Trouble Accessing VMWare ESxI

[Vaughan_Grobler]

Good Day

Hopefully Someone has insights into this issue and can provide me with some info,

I have recently taken over a site from my Previous Company,
The previous owner has immigrated and has left me with no access to our VM On Site.

Is there a way to reset any login details for us to be able to access this machine.

The site has gone down and without access to this VM we cannot get it back up. The previous IT team is not responding or providing any information leaving us stuck.

Kind Regards
Vaughan Grobler

[battybishop]

Please refer to this KB from VMware Steps to reset a lost or forgotten root password of an ESX/ESXi host (1317898) (vmware.com)

[markey165]

@Vaughan_Grobler 

Is this a standalone ESXI host or is it managed by vCenter. Also what version of ESXi is it? It should tell you on the DCUI console screen.

Officially the only supported method to reset the password is either by reinstalling ESXi, and preserving any VMFS datastores, or if is connected via vCenter you can reset it using Host Profiles. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/68079

The first method carries significant risks if you don't know what you are doing and don't have backups. You may need to seek professional advice or raise a support ticket, but they will tell you the same as above.

HTH

[AVC2]

Here is another option by s_wieland -> How to reset root password ESXi version 7 - VMware Technology Network VMTN

If the ESXi is registered to vCenter, you can use PowerCLI together with esxcli to reset the password.

#Connect to vCenter
Connect-VIServer <vcenter-name>

#Connect to esxcli
$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMhost <esxi-host-name> -V2


#Define new password for root
$arg = $esxcli.system.account.set.CreateArgs()
$arg.id = ‘root’
$arg.password = ‘NewPassword’
$arg.passwordconfirmation = $arg.password

#Set new password
$esxcli.system.account.set.Invoke($arg)