How to Reset vCenter 8.0 Root Password

Yep, there are still vCenter’s out there with expired root passwords. 😀

Therefore, I will describe the workaround to reset the root password for vCenter 8.0, which also works for vSphere 6.5 through today’s releases. First, take a snapshot of your vCenter VM:

Then switch to the ESXi Host Client and open a virtual console from the vCenter VM:

Now reboot the vCenter and watch this process, once you see the Photon welcome screen, hit E for options

Use the arrow keys to go to $systemd_cmdline and add the following command and hit F10:

rw init=/bin/bash

As soon as you are in the root directory, type the following command

mount -o remount,rw /

Now you are able to change the root password, for this we still need the well-known command:

passwd

Please note that you cannot use the same password again

After you have changed the password, unmount the readwrite access and restart the vCenter:

umount /
reboot -f

That’s it, now you should be able to log in to your vCenter or the VAMI interface as normal.

Perhaps a tip on the side; it makes sense to change the root password to never expire at one point or another. Here we switch to the VAMI interface and there to Administration:

Under Password exiration settings on the right, click Edit and set Password expires to No:

If you have any questions please leave a comment below! 🙂