Ok, so you most likely found this article because the root user password has been forgotten or wasn’t documented when set up or changed, and now you’re stuck. When attempting to log in as root to the console or using SSH, the error “Login Incorrect” keeps presenting itself, and no known password will get you in.

I get it, it happened…in fact, this just happened to me…I forgot the root password to my Aria Operations 8.18.3 instance when trying to do some fun things in my lab, and I was unable to SSH or console in. Luckily, as long as there’s console access, it’s pretty easy to resolve.

Here’s how I reset it – primarily, I followed the official KB and would recommend the same to others who run into this issue. If there are doubts, contact support.

First, be sure to have a recent backup and take a snapshot. Then, log in to the Aria Operations Administration page and gracefully take the cluster offline.

A window will pop up, and you can give it a reason for the offline status. Optionally, a message can be displayed on the maintenance page for the reason the cluster is offline.

And the cluster will eventually go offline, and the status will reflect this.

Now, using the console, I’ll want to boot into the GRUB (fun trivia…GNU GRUB stands for GRand Unified Bootloader) boot loader. First I’ll use VMRC to get to the console, then reset the VM.

As the VM boots, but before PhotonOS loads, hit the ‘e’ button to get into the edit mode for GRUB.

Once there, find the line that contains elevator=noop.

Using the right arrow cursor key, move the cursor to the end of that line.

At the end, type in init=/bin/bash

Like so:

Then press F10 to boot the appliance into single-user mode.

Because I’m on Aria Operation 8.18.3, I’ll need to follow the guidance in the KB for 8.14.x and above. After the appliance boots, at the prompt type mount -o remount,rw /

This will mount the root partition.

Now we can run passwd root to change the password.

Note, that the system will remember previous passwords, so you’ll need to change it to something new, and be sure to document the new password.

Also, Aria Operations has the following password requirements, and must contain:

• 1 special character from this list:    !@#$%^&*+=
• Must be at least 8 characters long
• 1 uppercase
• 1 lowercase
• 1 number

Enter in the new password, confirm by typing it in a second time, and hit enter to successfully change the password.

Also, this is optional, but a recommended step in the KB is to unlock the root account.

Run /usr/sbin/faillock --user root --reset

Now that’s all changed and completed, I’ll need to first unmount the root partition.

Run umount / (include the forward slash) and then reboot using the the command reboot -f

The Aria Operations appliance will reboot, and I can the login locally and SSH using the new root password.

And just like that, I have root access again. Yay!

Now, even though the node rebooted, I’ll still need to get back into the Aria Operations Administration page and bring the cluster back online.

Wait for the status to show it’s back online, and then login to Aria Operations.

And logging into Aria Operations, all is good,

That’s all for this blog! If you learned something or I helped you out in some way, please make a comment and let me know. Thanks!