VM Local account password reset

[Rok1215]

Yesterday I ran into a problem with one of our master image VMs. Booted it up from Vsphere and connected to it through the console, singing in with our AD admin account and I get the following message:"The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship." and "The trust relationship between this workstation and primary domain failed." And this seems to be a authentication error with connecting to our AD.

So I went on troubleshooting this and looking though forums to fix this, and I would just need to log in with my local account and reconnect with the AD.

But here is my problem, I cannot log in to any local account - says it is the wrong password, and I'm 100% sure it is the right one. I've tried every account username/password I could think of, and none of them work, I tried with just administrator and password blank, and it says "This account has been disabled, please contact your administrator".

So is there a way for me to reset or remake the local administrator account with a new password through Vsphere?

[T180985]

vSphere isnt able to assist you with resetting a Windows local admin password unfortunately. There are a few 3rd party options out there that may help you, might be worth googling how to reset lost passwords.

p.s might be worth checking the keyboard layout youre using if youre using the console e.g." and @ Often get swapped

[Alex_Romeo · Accepted solution]

Hi,

In my blog I had created a document that explains all the steps to reset the local administrator password in a Microsoft environment. It is in Italian, however there are many images.

Come resettare la password dell’utente “Administrator” su Windows Server 2016 – AleAdmin.it

This procedure also applies to previous versions (client \ Server).

ARomeo

[scott28tt]

Moderator: Moved to Virtual Machine, Guest OS & VMware Tools > Windows

[NathanosBlightc]

Not possible to change your Guest OS with any vSphere management tools. Just there is a guest OS customization just can be used as an answer file for the new VM deployment (for example in the VDI environment) There is many ways to reset the local account that you can find outside of VMware community forums but I suggest you to try fixing the trust relationship problem. If it's possible to login with any old domain account with required priviledges that may be cached in your system (disconnect your VM's NIC before this operation) and then check the DNS, Time & Time Zone settings of the guest OS, maybe you can fix it without need to reset your local accounts. (Note: Don't reset your computer account object in your AD in this situation, because it doesn't fix your problem now)

[Rok1215]

Thank you for this, will try it out and get back to you if it works out.

[Alex_Romeo]

OK! Thank you.

[Rok1215]

The actual machine is not present in our AD anymore, and from what I've been able to find regarding this, it seems to be a sync issue, because the authentication passwords / access to the AD, get reset every 30 days. So I have no other way to even log in, without a local account - which none of them work for some weird reason.

[NathanosBlightc]

So you need to any live OS (windows or linux) to boot up inside the VM to reset your local account (of the SAM file) of your guest OS.

[DanielLenz]

You can reset you password with Windows:

https://youtu.be/pXUpmCf-kd8

[Alex_Romeo]

the procedure in the video is identical to my tutorial (which I inserted in the answer) .... it applies to many microsft OS

ARomeo

[Rok1215]

I'm following your tutorial right now, and I'm stuck at the Windows + U step..

I cannot get it to register the Windows key + U, it always opens up my control panel on my local machine, from where I'm trying to remotley toubleshoot the problematic VM.

Any ideas how I can get it to recognize the keybind?

EDIT: Nevermind, got it to work somehow by spam clicking it. Also found out you can access the command prompt, if you hold shift and click restart.

[TechLab2net]

Thanks for the article, your method is working perfectly !!

[ThomsonA]

I tried your solution. It works until the line where Press Windows+U to get the command prompt.

Don't know how this can be done on the VM