Locked out of VM Terminal!! help!

[ocarmona]

The weirdest thing happened. Last night I was logged into the VI client and closed. Now this morning is giving me access denied with root. I tried from the console and still getting access denied!! How can I go about?

I have 1 other admin user but is also giving me access denied

When I use FastSCP I can browse though.

[virtualdud3 · Accepted solution]

Weird.

You mention you are able to login using FastSCP. Did you create a non-root user, or did you enable root ssh access?

If you are logging-in with a non-root user, you can try logging-in to the service console with this non-root account, then see if you can "su -" as the root.

If you need to reset your ESX root password, not a huge deal. It is easy to change.

During a "maintenance window", reboot the ESX server, then at the boot menu type "esx -s" and hit <Enter>. This will cause you to login in single-user-mode. At the # shell prompt, you can type "passwd", and type whatever password you like. Then hit Ctl-D, and reboot the server again, and your root password will be whatever you changed it to.

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[jonathanp]

Is it possible to reboot your server ?

If yes there is a way to change the root password.

Have you some security device on your network?

You could also check the log if you are able to copy them with SCP as you said.

Jon

[ocarmona]

ok I'm able to putty to it but I still can not connect through the VI client. It give me "connection failed" error.

[jonathanp]

Are u connecting via a Virtual Center Server?

you may try to restart those service

service vmware-vpxa restart

service mgmt-vmware restart

if using VC center server.. restart the Virtual Center Server service on the windows server.

Regards

[ocarmona]

Jonathan, perfect!!! I'm not using a VC but now I was able to restart those services and now I'm connecting fine! Thanks for helping me out!!

How often should I restart the ESX host? would that have been because I had not restarted in a while?

[jonathanp]

You welcome.

You should not have to restart your ESX server, we just restart when we apply patch that require a reboot and we plan it.

Regards

Jon