Root Password Not Recognized, Even After Change

[Shump]

Hello,

I have a VMware ESXi 6.5 host on which I cannot access the root account. Each time I attempt to login, either via the Web interface or via SSH, it tells me that the password is incorrect.

Fortunately, I do have another user with admin access on the machine, so I can still get in. If I log in as that user, and then reset the root user's password, it appears to work, but I am still unable to login as root. This is true whether I reset it via the Web interface or via the shell with the passwd command.

No matter what I do, it tells me that the password for the root account is incorrect.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[tayfundeger]

Hi,

You may have locked the account because you entered the password for ESXi 6.5 incorrectly. In this case, you can access the shell and run the following command.

pam_tally2 --user root --reset

After running this command, try logging in again.

It may also be trying to be a 3rd party product login to ESXi. Or, if the ESXi is open to the external network, brute force may be attempted. You need to check this out.

[NathanosBlightc]

Check the /var/log/auth.log & vmkernel.log files, maybe there are some failed logins from any other backup or monitoring tools that try to log in to the ESXi host