VCSA root Locked Out!

This gave me cause for tears today. The VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance) management Web UI (https://vcsa:5480) decided not to let me in as root. I’m guessing I spannered the password a few too many times.

It’s a very good job that at some point in the past I put my public key onto the system so I could use my plain old no password required private key to logon to the system using ssh!

SSH Logon with Private Key

Now I’m logged onto the console how do I go about getting access back to the Web UI? I discovered that the VCSA system uses pam_tally2 to lockout sessions. What I needed to do was reset the root account:

# pam_tally2 --user=root
 Login           Failures Latest failure     From
 root               10    06/07/19 14:12:11  unknown
# pam_tally2 --user=root --reset
 Login           Failures Latest failure     From
 root               10    06/07/19 14:12:11  unknown
# pam_tally2 --user=root
 Login           Failures Latest failure     From

Now I can logon to the Web UI!

The lesson to learn here is to install your public key onto your precious Linux boxes!