VCSA 6.5 upgrade dilemma

[DKramkowski]

I've got an interesting vCenter VCSA 6.5 upgrade dilemma that maybe because my search-fu is weak, but I can't seem to find an answer for,

I'm currently running VCSA 6.5.0.11000 build 5908501. When I tried to upgrade to the latest version through the appliance manager, it failed the precheck because it said the password was expired. According to the Administration tab, my password expires (expired) on Dec 31, 1970. I can log in fine. No issues. Have never been prompted to change it. The problem is, it won't let me set it to not expire. It won't let me change the validity period and it won't let me change the password. Trying to change any of those things gives me: 'Permission Denied. Set the maximum number of days when the password will expire.Administrator configuration updated successfully' or 'Could not set the password.' when trying to change the password.

Any suggestions as to how to get it to change and actually work again?

[daphnissov]

This is a known issue resolved in vCSA 6.5 U1c. Release notes.

[DKramkowski]

That's great that it's resolved - but that doesn't help me get it updated/upgraded. As I said, when I tried to install the latest update, it refused to do so because the password 'was expired'. I can't change the password because of the bug, and I can't update/upgrade because it's expired. A catch 22.

A bit it a tangent, but vCenter 6.5 is a train wreck. It has been one problem after another. OVF deployment broke horribly. Consoles crash routinely. The Flash interface crashes routinely. The consoles are hit or miss with regards to changing settings (for example, If I try to change something as simple as what network the vNIC is attached to using the 'Virtual Machine Settings' in the console, sometimes it'll work, but usually, it fails and then the only way to make the change it to power the machine down and use the flash web client - there was actually at least one instance where it failed so spectacularly, I had to delete the NIC and add a new one). You'd think companies like VMWare would learn from the disaster that is Java that you should not rely on other companies (IE Adobe > Flash) for management of YOUR product and expect it to be acceptable. The C# client was SOLID. While I'm running 6.5 in my home 'sandbox' via my VMUG subscription to learn it, based on my learning, there are ZERO plans on the roadmap at this time to move to 6.5 in my customer facing datacenter environment. VMWare should NEVER had canned the C# client. Develop the Web client, for those that want to endure it's suckiness, but keeping the far superior client for those that want to use it.

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

There is a KB which illustrates how to reset the password here.

[DKramkowski]

Thanks - that fixed that problem. Woudln't have expected to have to use the 'lost or forgotten password' procedure if the password wasn't lost or forgotten. But now a new problem, that may have been started by the first failure caused by the 'expired password' and failed update - when I try to check for updates, either from the repository or from the CDROM (I've also downloaded and attached the ISO of the update), I get 'Stage Failed'. No other info. I've read some posts about volumes being near full causing this kind of issue, but looking at the space free, the volume with the highest percentage used is '/' at 55%, but that still leaves it at 5GB free, which I'd think would be enough, since the entire update is about 1.5GB. Is there something else I should be looking at to resolve this issue?

[mjmcc]

For others who come here, I only needed to:

• ssh to the appliance as root
• type 'shell' to get a bash prompt
• run 'passwd' at the bash prompt to change the password

"Install Updates" worked after that.

[wowitsdave]

I had this issue- I was trying to update and it was failing, telling me the password was expired or about to expire.

I tried changing it in the GUI and setting it not to expire- nothing.

Then I SSH'd into the VCSA, and it immediately asked me to change the password. I changed it and was able to update.

So next time I will SSH in and should be good to go.

[computers_suk]

i cannot find any resolution to my root password issue. attempting to upgrade vcsa versions and blocked due to root account expiration.

chage -l root displays:
"Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
cage: PAM User account has expired"

resetting password with 'passwd ' does not correct the issue. have tried via ssh as well as from grub rw init=/bin/bash

[computers_suk]

I''ve got to find a solution to my root user account expiration that is blocking me from upgrading VCSA. 

I have tried both via grub rw init=/bin/bash as well as from ssh to change root password with "passwd" but when checking account with chage:

```

chage -l root

"Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator

chage: PAM User account has expired"

```

Password reset with 'passwd' is accepted and seemingly works but chage still shows account as expired.

VAMI prompts "unable to set password" when attempting reset

I am at a loss here. 

[JDMils_Interact]

One of my co-workers had the same exact issue, however we are able to logon to the VAMI and SSH session using root OK. Once logged into the SSH session, all I did was run:

passwd

Changed the password to a new password, then logged into the VAMI using the new password and was able to set the root expiration to No.