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Hi all,

I have a Dell EMC VNXe3100 that I'm trying to bring back into a usable state after a long period of being disconnected from the network (data was previously migrated off to another NAS; the VNXe was never powered off, just unplugged from the switch).

What happened:
After reconnecting the network cables, I could reach the storage/data network interface but not the management interface. Following community advice, I pressed the password-reset button (the two-facing-triangles icon) on both SPs. Both fault LEDs went blue temporarily; after a full power cycle, management connectivity was restored and I was able to log in with admin/Password123#.

The actual problem:
Unisphere immediately forces a mandatory password change for both admin and service accounts. The service account password change works fine (confirmed via SSH login with the new password). However, the admin password change gets stuck indefinitely on "Configuring new passwords..." — confirmed via Wireshark that the browser keeps polling the array successfully over TLS for 12+ minutes with no network issues at all, so it's not a connectivity problem.

What I've tried via uemcli (from an SSH session logged in as service):

/user/account -id user_admin set -passwd <newpass> -oldpasswd Password123# → Error 0x6000017: "You have to change the administrator password in order to perform this action."
Same with -force instead of -oldpasswd → identical error.
/user/account show (a read-only command) → same error 0x6000017.
/user/account create -name <newuser> -type local -passwd <pass> -role administrator → same error.
/sys/eula set -agree yes → succeeded, but didn't resolve the underlying issue.

Other things tried:

svc_restart_service restart MGMT → no change.
svc_initial_config → reports the system is already initialized with the correct network/name configuration.
svc_change_config → reports no supported upgrades from current config.
svc_service_shell → fails with "ERROR: service tool has expired!"

Based on some research, this looks like it matches a known EMC issue where the persisted password-configuration file (referenced internally as something like c4_2_1_UIS_adminPasswordSet) is missing or corrupted, which would explain why literally every account-related uemcli operation fails with the same "you must change the administrator password" error, in a loop that can never complete.

The problem: our support contract for this unit ended in 2011, so I can't open a case, download the Connection Utility, or get a svc_service_shell unlock code through normal channels. This unit is being decommissioned/repurposed, not used in production, so I'm not looking for a warranty fix — just a way to get past this specific software lock (ideally without a full svc_reinit, since I've read about cases where that led to units becoming completely unrecoverable on this same model).

Would anyone from Dell/EMC support, or anyone who has hit this exact issue, be able to help with either:

A svc_service_shell challenge-response unlock code, or
Any other supported way to clear/reset that password-configuration state without a full factory reinit?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

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