In this quick blog post, I’ll go over how to reset the root password on How to reset the root password on VMware Cloud Director on v10.6. There’s been a slight change compared to previous versions, so here’s what’s new.
In earlier versions, we used the pam_tally2 command to reset failed login attempts. However, with version 10.6, this has changed — now we need to use the faillock command instead.
Step 1 – Enter GRUB and Boot into Single User Mode
Reboot the Photon OS VM.
When the GRUB menu appears, press e to edit the boot entry.
Look for the line that starts with linux and add the following at the end:
rw init=/bin/bash
Your screen should look like this:
Press Ctrl + X or F10 to boot with these changes.
Step 2 – Remount, Unlock, and Reset
Once you land in the shell, run the following commands:
mount -o remount,rw /
Then, check the login failures (optional, but helpful):
/usr/sbin/faillock --user root
Now, reset the failed login attempts:
/usr/sbin/faillock --user root --reset
The, update the root password(if needed):
passwd
You’ll be prompted to enter and confirm the new password.
Here’s how the full process looks in action:
Step 3 – Reboot
Once done, cleanly exit:
umount /
reboot -fIf needed (but not recommended in production environments), you can also set the password to never expired: To set the root password never to expire: chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 root
And that’s it! You’ve successfully reset the root password on VMware Cloud Director 10.6. This change to faillock reflects updates in the newer Photon OS versions, so keep this in mind when troubleshooting future access issues.
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