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For one of our machines we lost our root password for the iDrac7 Enterprise interface. The machine is running many virtual machines and turning them off would be a huge task.

So, my question is: Is there a way to reset the iDrac Password without rebooting the machine? It's running VMware ESXi 5.5 and I can connect to it via vSphere client as well as SSH.

Ethan Leroy
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4 Answers4

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Try this from the command line: racadm racresetcfg

If you have the DRAC tools installed, it'll reset your DRAC to factory defaults. If it fails, you're stuck rebooting the server.

Nathan C
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  • No. `racadm` is not installed. Any other idea? (I stopped reading at "If it fails" ;-) – Ethan Leroy Jul 15 '14 at 13:41
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    @EthanLeroy [Um... install it](http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/3205.racadm-command-line-interface-for-drac.aspx)? – HopelessN00b Jul 15 '14 at 16:59
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    It's been a long time since my last comment, but the problem is still there. @HopelessN00b Thanks for the link, but I also have a problem with this: **My operating system is ESXi 5.5** and the download list does not contain the mentioned _Linux Remote Access Utilities_. So, **where can I download the those DRAC Tools for Unix-Systems/ESXi 5.5**? – Ethan Leroy Mar 24 '15 at 12:24
  • @EthanLeroy [This seems to be applicable](http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=D0JCN). – HopelessN00b Mar 24 '15 at 12:54
  • @EthanLeroy On a related note, it's been 9 months, and a new major verion of ESXi is out. Getting close to reboot time, if for no reason other than to upgrade to a newer version of ESXi. – HopelessN00b Mar 24 '15 at 13:03
  • OM-DRAC-Dell-Web-WINX64-7.4.0-866_A00.exe I don't think I can install this on my ESXi machine. For upgrading ESXi I need access to DRAC :-) – Ethan Leroy Mar 24 '15 at 13:29
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    Ethan - for heaven's sake, read the whole article. "The Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) console is management station software designed to provide remote management capabilities for the Dell systems. " That means you install it on a management station, not the server. – mfinni Mar 24 '15 at 13:50
  • Ok. But then I don't have the `racadm` command on the machine and (I assume) I won't be able to update the password without providing the current password, right? – Ethan Leroy Mar 24 '15 at 14:30
  • you get the racadm command by installing the DRAC console tools on your windows workstation. – mfinni Mar 24 '15 at 15:45
  • And it's been like 9 months, as Hopelessnoob said. You could have arranged a reboot during a maintenance window at sometime in the past 9 months. – mfinni Mar 24 '15 at 15:48
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    Again: My machine runs ESXi 4 and *not* Windows. So, I can take another computer, install it there, but it would be a big security hole if I could then reset my iDRAC password from that machine, because that would mean that anyone could reset it. Reboot: For resetting the password during reboot, I need access to the iDRAC interface. So, a reboot won't help me much, as long as I am not on site. Additionally the server hosts dozens of virtual machines so I really like to avoid a reboot. – Ethan Leroy Mar 24 '15 at 20:54
  • Yes, this needs to be installed on ANOTHER MACHINE, like your own desktop. It's a best practice to keep console and other OOB interfaces on a VLAN that's only accessible by IT staff. And if iDRAC is your only method of console management, you are in a bind. If this is in a datacenter and you don't have some other form of remote KVM, send them instructions on how to do this from a crash cart. Regarding the reboot - yes it's inconvenient, but you've had almost a year to schedule it at this point. – mfinni Mar 25 '15 at 12:51
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I know I'm resurrecting the dead here, but here is an "half-answer" for anyone who stumbles across this question. (I know you've already sorted your issue, and no one wants to reboot their servers if they can help it!)

You can do this from OpenManage for ESX, but...

...as it does require a reboot of ESX after install, at least if you pre-install it, and if you have some unexpected downtime, when the server comes back up you can have all the access you want, as well as change the iDrac username/password.

Here are instructions from Dell, and supports ESX 5.5 to 6.5 - steps 1-6 tell you all you need to know to install OpenManage on ESX, just ignore the last step.

I make it a habit now to install OpenManage on all servers immediately after installing ESX as well as setting up the iDrac, just in case!

(I'm not going to re-post the entire page contents - suffice to say if anyone comments on this that the link is broken, I'll update the link)

KolonUK
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Solution: push and hold down the glowing blue button labelled "i" on the back of the server for 15 seconds... that will reboot the iDrac.

tkprett
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  • The OP asked for a solution which did **not** involve rebooting the machine, just resetting the password... – Castaglia Mar 09 '16 at 22:25
  • This just restarts the DRAC, not the whole server, so this is also a good hint, but well, not answers the question. I wanted to reset the iDrac *password* without rebooting. For example, just from Linux. I said, it's a good hint, because after trying to log in some hundred times, the DRAC got unresponsive, so we had to reset i this way. But yeah, for resetting the password we had to restart the whole server. – Ethan Leroy Mar 10 '16 at 13:26
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For anyone who would be searching for solution. The tool you want to install on esx is called "Dell EMC iDRAC Tools for VMware" available as vib from here it will e.g. show your drac IP, systemtag, add new drac admin all from esxcli

Community
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R Mitura
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