Usually, administrators who have deployed and configured the environment that left the organization and new administrators who joined the company do not know the password configured during the initial setup, and we often forget the password we configured. Most applications will provide options to reset or recover forgotten passwords. I will explain the detailed process of resetting vCenter SSO password for appliance-based vCenter Server (VCSA)
VMware vCenter is the management pillar of VMware vSphere. Starting from vSphere 6.0, VMware introduced Platform Service Controller (PSC) by replacing the vCenter SSO server to change its vCenter architecture. VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC) is a component of VMware Cloud Infrastructure Suite. PSC handles the identity management of administrators and applications interacting with the vSphere platform. You can deploy PSC and vCenter Server at the same time on the same device (vCenter Server's embedded platform service controller) or PSC and standalone device vCenter Server (using vCenter external platform services).
Since SSO is handled by PSC, if vCenter uses an external PSC, you need to log in (SSH) to the PSC device to reset the SSO password; if the deployment is vCenter with embedded PSC, log in using the vCenter Server device.
How to reset the vCenter SSO password for the VCSA appliance
To reset the vCenter SSO password, you need to remember the root credentials of the PSC or vCenter Server Appliance.
1. Use SSH as the root user to log in to the Platform Services Controller or vCenter Server with the Embedded Platform Services Controller device
2. Run the following command to enable access to the Bash shell:
shell.set-Enable true
3. Type shell and press Enter. Enter the following command
/ usr / lib / vmware-vmdir / bin / vdcadmintool
How to reset vCenter SSO password
4. Press 3 to select the "Reset Password" option. When prompted to enter the account UPN, enter User@vSphere_Domain_Name.local.
In my case, it is [email protected].
If your vSphere domain name is customized, please provide a customized domain name. A random password will be generated for the VCenter SSO administrator account.
5. Use the vCenter SSO administrator account with the generated password to log in to the vSphere Web Client. Select the option to change password under the logged in user name
How to reset vCenter SSO password
6. Specify the old password generated in the above steps and the new password to be changed to. Click OK. Log out and log back in to vCenter Server using the SSO user account with the new password.