$esxcli = get-esxcli -vmhost $vmhost -v2 #Gain access to ESXCLI on the host. $NewCredential = Get-Credential -UserName 'root' -Message 'Enter an existing ESXi username (not vCenter), and what you want their password to be reset to.' # Just so it contains one or more VMHost objects. You can do this many ways.$vmhosts = Get-Cluster -Name ClusterWithUnknownPassword | Get-VMHost Haven't used this method myself personally. This can be done but still requires the host to be put into maintenance mode. Generate a host profile that specifies the password and attach it to the host.I've used this in a pinch and it does work.

Once connected this way, you should be able to change the password for the root account through the vSphere client connected directly to the host. Use the vSphere client to connect directly to the host using AD credentials to login.

Use vCenter to join each host to an AD Domain and setup and configure an AD user as an admin to the host and allow AD authentication.

Regarding non-supported methods that I will mention but don't necessarily advise. Depending on your infrastructure and depending on the number of virtual machines to move, the two hosts should take less than a day to rebuild unless you have extraordinarily large or complex host configuration.Īlso, if you are on an older version of ESXi, this would also be a good time to check your current hardware against the HCL and move up to the latest version if supported (After upgrading your vCenter server first of course). This would allow you to rebuild without incurring any downtime on the guests. Then move all the guests onto the rebuilt host and remove/rebuild the remaining host.

If you have two hosts and they have the resources to support it, you could vMotion (and/or storage vMotion) the servers all onto a single host, remove and rebuild the empty host, add it back into the cluster. ESXi does not have a service console and as such traditional Linux methods of resetting a password, such as single-user mode do not apply. Any other method may lead to a host failure or an unsupported configuration due to the complex nature of the ESXi architecture. Reinstalling the ESXi host is the only supported way to reset a password on ESXi. For ESXi, the only supported method to change the password is to reinstall.

Vmware esxi 6 reset root password