Unlocking and resetting vCenter SSO admin account

The default administrator login which is created with SSO installation is admin@system-domain on vCenter Server installed on Windows Server or root@system-domain on vCenter Applicance. Don’t worry if you lock out the admin account (like it happened to me as it unlocks automatically after 15 min.

If you want to reset the password you can do that by running the below commands:

To reset the SSO administrator password on a Windows server:

1. Login as an administrator to the vCenter SSO server.
2. Click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK. The Command Prompt window opens.
3. Navigate to the directory SSOInstallDirectory\utils. By default, the installation directory is  C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer.
4. Run this command:
   
   rsautil reset-admin-password
5. Enter the master password when prompted.
   
   Note: This is the password selected for the SSO administrator during the SSO installation. If you have changed your SSO administrator password later, the master password is still the original one chosen.
   
6. Enter the SSO administrator name for which you want to reset the password. For example, admin.
7. Enter the new password for the user and then confirm it a second time.
   
   You should see the message Password reset successfully.

To reset the SSO administrator password on the vCenter Server Appliance:

1. Log in as root to the vCenter server Appliance. 
2. From the command line, navigate to /usr/lib/vmware-sso/utils directory. 
3. Run this command:
   
   ./rsautil reset-admin-password
4. Enter the master password when prompted.
   
   Note: By default, this is the root password.
   
5. Enter the SSO administrator name for which you want to reset the password. For example, admin.
6. Enter the new password for the user and then confirm it a second time.
   
   You should see the message Password reset successfully.