Forum Discussion

Nimbostratus

Mar 03, 2016

resetting lost/forget admin and root password on F5 BIG IP

Can anyone suggest how to reset the forgotten root and admin password on F5 BigIP devices( running on 11.x and 10.x versions) Do we need need to provide same password for root and admin? How d...

Nacreous

Mar 03, 2016

First to reset the lost passwords you can go into the /config/bigip_user.conf file and change the "encrypted-password" field to password yourTempPassword. After you do that you can then load it via tmsh load sys config user-only. Once you do that, you can then change them in the GUI to something permanent so it re-encrypts them in the config file.

In an HA scenario, those accounts should sync with each other so no need to make them the same ahead of time.

san_239682
Nimbostratus
Mar 03, 2016
Hi Brad Thanks for your response. Can you please confirm whether this root and admin passwords reside on bigip_user.conf file.
san_239682
Nimbostratus
Mar 03, 2016
Hi Brad Do we need to get serial console connection and restart the device during this process?
Adam_Ingle_1300
Cirrus
Jan 10, 2017
Thanks, Brad!
etrust_146327
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
How can you go to /config/bigip_user.conf if you don't have a password to login?
Adam_Ingle_1300
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
See the reset procedure here: https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K13121p3

It assumes you have direct console access to the BigIP. It is an interruptive process.
etrust_146327
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
There are no files in /config folder after entering single mode
Adam_Ingle_1300
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
While in Single-User Mode-

Type the following commands:

mount -a

passwd root

You will be prompted to reset the root password.

After resetting the root account password, you will now have an administrative account where by you can reboot the box, log-in as root and perform the aforementioned steps with the bigip_user.conf

Good luck!
etrust_146327
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
sh: (try 'info') / > passwd root

sh: passwd: command not found
Adam_Ingle_1300
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
What version are you running? The indicated shell prompt does not look like "single user" mode has been successfully initialized.

Testing on v11 and v12, the prompt should look like:

[@!:!:!] /
From this, you'd run the mount -a and passwd root commands then reboot.
etrust_146327
Cirrus
Feb 03, 2017
v12.1.2 Virtual Edition

My prompt looks like this:

sh: (try 'info') / >