Change adminpasswords in ESX and VC?

[Frans_P]

Hi everyone,

How do i change the password i configured at the setup of Virtual Center and how do i change the root password on one of my ESX 3.5 servers?

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

To change the root password in ESX you will have to do that from the service console - you can do it directly from the systems console logging in as root and using the passwd command -

For VC you depending on if you are using a Windows domain user account or the local Windows user account - if domain based user standard AD tools to change the password - if using a local user account use the tools your VC server has to change that account -

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[IB_IT]

what password in virtualcenter are you referring to? What user account to you use to log into virtual center?

To change a password in ESX, type: passwd username

[SCampbell1]

Using the Linux console is just soooo 2007, and you have to enable ssh or find your way into that noisy cold computer room or configure iLO or whatever. :smileyblush:

When you use the VIClient to connect directly to the ESX server instead of to a VC server, a new "Users" tab shows up. You can manage accounts there including resetting the root password.

If you are setting the password for many servers or you want to change the password regularly (even though no one should be logging on with it anyway), you can use the VI toolkit for Windows (or perl). There are several examples in the forums usually as part of provisioning scripts, including my ESX provisioning script NAEPS at http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8170

The root password still exists in ESXi, but the procedure you run at the console of the server is somewhat different since there's no command line, but it's easy to navigate. And it's still cold and noisy. The VIClient and scripted solutions work the same for ESXi servers.