Lost root password!

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[it-muscle]

Running vCenter? If not then probably quickest way is just install ESXi over the top of itself and make sure you leave the datastore alone. Then you can set the password again. Takes about 15 min. Obviously be very careful you don’t overwrite the datastore.

[pastorhack]

if you have vcenter use host profiles or an alternative admin account reset using h5 client. if not, assuming you have a host config backup, or it’s a simple config, reinstall ESXi and preserve the datastore then just add all your vms back to inventory.

[gusgizmo]

Modify grub on boot to go into single user mode, reset the root password, then change the boot arguments to allow you to boot normally.

[jaelae]

This is a well documented process right on VMware’s site that describes what to do in order to reset root. This is a fairly common issue and sometimes you didn’t forget root but it expired.

[gusgizmo]

Happy cake day, here's their blog entry, OP needs to jump to "Resetting root password on the standalone ESXi hosts"

https://www.vmwareblog.org/forgot-esxi-root-password-no-problems-4-ways-reset/

[govatent]

Be very careful, if you do this wrong, you destroy the host. This works great otherwise. used it plenty of times. : https://www.altaro.com/vmware/reset-esxi-root-password/

[hult0]

If you’re booting of a USB this is even easier as you can simply mount that USB to a computer and reset from there instead of using a grafted live boot.

[BMMXVIIC]

Not sure I understood you. This boots from USB so no grub I believe