Reset hosed up ESXi root password via vCenter?

[DSeaman]

During some (failed) experimentation with Host Profiles and Active Directory integration, it appears the root password on a couple of ESXi 4.1 servers got mangled and is no longer what it was set to. vCenter can still fully manage the ESXi server, but I can no longer directly connect with the vSphere client as root.

Since vCenter can still talk to the ESXi 4.1 host, is there a way to change the local root password? If that's not an option, I was reading that possibly using a ESXi 4.0 CD with the repair option could reset the 4.1 root password?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

vCenter uses the vpxuser account to manage the host and never relies on root once the host has been joined to your vCenter datacenter.  Have you tried to update the host profile or to create another one that resets the password? Did AD integration work?  If so have you tried to login directly with an AD account?  If that works you could enable tech support mode and use this process http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Reset_root_password.php to reset the root password.  If you can get TSM access you only need to change /etc/shadow as described in step 4.

[DSeaman]

The problem with the host profile is that during the AD integration step it just hangs (although a manual join works fine). After it hangs, it appears the root password gets hosed up. One of the hosts was already joined to AD, but one of the host profiles I tried didn't specify a domain so vCenter REMOVED it from AD.

Your idea about using host profiles to reset the password is good. Also, we don't use the default ESX Admins AD group, but I suppose I could create the group, put my admin account in there, then use that to login and reset the root password.

I'll do more testing to see if I can replicate the problem then open a VMware ticket. Although most of my previous tickets were chalked up to 'known issues' and rarely get fixed.