PowerCLI - Get Windows Local Administrator Password from the Custom Spec

[sujeetkp]

I am trying to fetch the local Administrator Password from the Custom Spec (Windows OS).

Is there a way to do it ?

[LucD · Accepted solution]

In theory yes, in practice I have no knowledge of any script that can do this.

The passwords defined in an OSCustomizationSpec, are stored encrypted in the vCenter DB.

That encryption uses the vCenter certificate.

From Creating and Managing Customization Specifications, the following text

"vCenter Server saves the customized configuration parameters in the vCenter Server database. If the customization settings are saved, the administrator and domain administrator passwords are stored in encrypted format in the database. Because the certificate used to encrypt the passwords is unique to each vCenter Server system, if you reinstall vCenter Serveror attach a new instance of the server to the database, the encrypted passwords become invalid. You must reenter the passwords before you can use them."

In the OSCustomizationSpec itself you will only find the public key.