Rotate the cloudadmin credentials for Azure VMware Solution

Article
04/04/2024

In this article, you learn how to rotate the cloudadmin credentials (vCenter Server and VMware NSX cloudadmin credentials) for your Azure VMware Solution private cloud. Although the password for this account doesn't expire, you can generate a new one at any time.

Caution

If you use your cloudadmin credentials to connect services to vCenter Server or NSX in your private cloud, those connections stop working after you rotate your password. Those connections also lock out the cloudadmin account unless you stop those services before you rotate the password.

Prerequisites

Consider and determine which services connect to vCenter Server as cloudadmin@vsphere.local or NSX as cloudadmin before you rotate the password. Services can include VMware services like HCX, vRealize Orchestrator, vRealize Operations Manager, VMware Horizon, or other non-Microsoft tools that are used for monitoring or provisioning.

One way to determine which services authenticate to vCenter Server with the cloudadmin user is to inspect vSphere events by using the vSphere Client for your private cloud. After you identify such services, and before you rotate the password, you must stop these services. Otherwise, the services won't work after you rotate the password. You can also experience temporary locks on your vCenter Server cloudadmin account. Locks occur because these services continuously attempt to authenticate by using a cached version of the old credentials.

Instead of using the cloudadmin user to connect services to vCenter Server or NSX, we recommend that you use individual accounts for each service. For more information about setting up separate accounts for connected services, see Access and identity architecture.

In your Azure VMware Solution private cloud, select VMware credentials.
Select Generate new password under vCenter Server credentials.
Select the confirmation checkbox and then select Generate password.

To begin using the Azure CLI:

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

In your Azure VMware Solution private cloud, open an Azure Cloud Shell session.

Update your vCenter Server cloudadmin credentials. Remember to replace {SubscriptionID}, {ResourceGroup}, and {PrivateCloudName} with your private cloud information.

az resource invoke-action --action rotateVcenterPassword --ids "/subscriptions/{SubscriptionID}/resourceGroups/{ResourceGroup}/providers/Microsoft.AVS/privateClouds/{PrivateCloudName}" --api-version "2020-07-17-preview"

Update HCX Connector

Go to the on-premises HCX Connector and sign in by using the new credentials.

Be sure to use port 443.
On the VMware HCX dashboard, select Site Pairing.
Select the correct connection to Azure VMware Solution and select Edit Connection.
Provide the new vCenter Server user credentials. Select Edit to save the credentials. Save should show as successful.

Reset your NSX Manager credentials

In your Azure VMware Solution private cloud, select VMware credentials.
Under NSX Manager credentials, select Generate new password.
Select the confirmation checkbox and then select Generate password.

Next steps

Now that you've learned how to reset your vCenter Server and NSX Manager credentials for Azure VMware Solution, consider learning more about:

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