How to fix or change the VCSA root password that has expired 6.5 or above

By | October 3, 2019
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As I was going through the process of updating my VCSA from 6.5 to 6.7, I ran into the issue of my expired VSCA root password.  After a couple of minutes of research, this was the final solution.

Solution:

  1. Log into the VCSA website http://yourVCSA:5480
  2. When prompted, type in root and the root password (it should work, even if expired)
  3. Note: Even though there is an option here to change your root password, it doesn’t seem to work when the root password is expired.
  4. Go to troubleshooting options and enable BASH and enable SSH
  5. Connect to your VCSA using SSH – logging on with root and your expired password.
  6. Type “shell” and press enter
  7. Once you are at a bash, type “passwd” and press Enter
  8. Enter your current root password twice if you want to keep it.
  9. If you want to use a new root password, enter it twice here.
  10. Verify it works by opening the vCenter management website via port 5480 and logging on.

How to prevent the root password from expiring again:

  1. To prevent the root password from expiring again, log onto the vCenter management website via port 5480, go to the Administration menu, and change the password settings here.
  2. If you use a long and complex password, there is no reason to expire it automatically.