How to fix or change vCenter root password expired 6.5 and 6.7

Symptoms

• Your vCenter 6.5 or 6.7 server automatically expired your root password
• You left the default setting to expire the root password in your vCenter Appliance
• When you try to log on to the management website :5480 with root, it says the password is expired.
• You know what the root password is.

How to fix:

1. Open console to your VCSA by logging on to the vSphere ESXi server that is hosting it
2. Press F2 to configure your vCenter appliance
3. When prompted, type in your root password (it should work, even if expired)
4. Note: Even though there is an option here to change your root password, it doesn’t seem to work when root is expired.
5. Go to troubleshooting options and enable BASH and enable SSH
6. Connect to your VCSA using SSH – logging on with root and your expired password will work.
7. Select BASH shell from the menu
8. type “passwd” and press Enter
9. If you want to keep your current root password, just enter it twice here.
10. If you want to use a new root password, enter it twice here.
11. Verify it works by opening the management website :5480 to your vCenter server and logging on.

Prevent the root password from expiring again

1. To prevent the root password from expiring again, log onto vCenter management website ( :5480), go to Administration menu, and change the password settings here.
2. If you use a long, complex password, there is no reason to automatically expire it.   Long and complex means 14+ characters!

Selfish plug time (sorry!)

Thanks for reading this article! I hope it helps you! If you have tips or feedback, please comment or send me an email so that others can benefit.

I am a consultant in the Maryland/DC area in the USA. My specialties are Windows migrations (to 2016 and to Office 365 / Azure), VMware migrations, Netapp and SAN, and high availability / disaster recovery planning. If you would like help with your complex project, or would like a architectural review to improve your availability, please reach out! More information and contact can be found on the About page. – Amira Armond