VxRail: Resetting the Root Password for Dell VxRail Manager

Summary: Guided instructions for an administrator to reset the VxRail Manager root password.

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Symptoms

An administrator may reset the VxRail Manager root password if the password is lost.

Cause

The root password may have been lost.

Resolution

Follow these steps to reset the root password:

  1. Restart Guest (Do NOT RESET) for VxRail Manager virtual machine (VM) from vCenter, then Press E at the below screen (Figure 1).

Restarting guest

Figure 1: Restarting guest

  1. Add init=/bin/bash as shown in the screen below (shown in a red square in Figure 2), then press F10 or Control+X.

  1. Change the password by typing passwd and then Update the new password. You may see the following error (Figure 3):

Changing password

Figure 3: Changing password

If you see the "Authentication token lock busy," error, type:

mount -o remount rw -t ext3 /
chmod -v 4711 /usr/bin/passwd

Correcting Authentication token lock busy message

Figure 4: Correcting Authentication token lock busy message

  1. Change the password again by typing passwd and then Update the new password.

Changing password again

Figure 5: Correcting Authentication token lock busy message

  1. Exit from the VxRail Manager Console, then either click Restart Guest or Power Off and then Power On on the VxRail Manager VM from vCenter.
Important Note: If you selected "Reset" from the VM Power options instead of Restart Guest or Power Off, the changes you made in GRUB are reverted. You must go through the steps again and use the correct VM Power option.
 
Note:
To delay boot order, you can right click to the VxRail manager VM, then click Edit Settings.
On the "VM Options" tab, navigate to the Boot Options section and setup a Boot Delay (revert back to 0 once activity is completed):

Additional Information

Watch this video:


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Affected Products

VxRail, VxRail Software

Products

VxRail Appliance Family, VxRail Appliance Series
Article Properties
Article Number: 000064579
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 19 May 2025
Version:  18
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