Lost root pwd 1

[Breslau]

hey,

i've never had this happen before on a HMC managed p5, but have lost the ability to log in as root and need to access the vg somehow in order to reset the password.

i am able to boot off the install CD, and can see rootvg, and access it before mounting the filesystems. however, if i exit this shell or go directly to the vg from maintenance, i see a lot of:

/etc/getrootfs[586]: <number> killed.

it then goes into a debug mode.

i'm wondering if i should be using a different method to recover this host's root account based on the fact it's managed by the HMC... or is there another issue going on?

TIA!

 

[sbrews]

You mentioned that this was on a P5 system - so I am going to assume you are using AIX V5.x. This link should provide you with all the details you need to recover the root pw:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc...tos/doc/howto/HT_baseadmn_recoverrootpswd.htm

 

[Breslau]

well the only thing i didn't do previously was enable multiboot. the menu choices i see are actually slightly different too.

in any case, it still bombs when i try to import rootvg. same errot messages...

 

[p5wizard]

Could mean that there's something wrong with the rootvg you are trying to access...

Are you sure that it is maint-booting from the same disk as it normally boots from?


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Breslau]

as mush as i can be.. the rootvg contains two disks. they're listed this way as well when the choices are shown. so, i select the menu choice containing hdisk1 & hdisk0.

unless there's a way i can force it to boot from one of these drives and not the other....

 

[hfaix]

So this machine is bootable? If so, you could boot it up, remove one hdisk from rootvg and try your procedure again.

 

[Breslau]

yeah there's no problem in getting it to a running state. i just have lost root access.

 

[Breslau]

i was able to capture the console output before it scrolled off. the first instance of the getrootfs error occurs as, or after it checks the /usr filesystem:

The current volume is: /dev/hd2
Primary superblock is valid.
/etc/getrootfs[555]: 6712 Killed
Saving special files and device configuration information.

 

[p5wizard]

You're probably maint-booting off of 5.2 CDs and your rootvg is 5.3, or your rootvg has been upgraded since installing from the CDs that you're now trying to maint-boot from. The boot image on the CD is incompatible with the AIX kernel in rootvg.

Can you try another AIX CD-set?


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Breslau]

nah, it's 5.3 cd's, but pretty dated... feb 2005.

 

[Breslau]

The hosts is at 5.3 ML 5. i just tried accessing the rootvg using a nim server with spot at 5.3 ML 4 and got the same results, bombs at getrootfs...

 

[p5wizard]

I believe you have to have the same ML on the boot media...

Can you boot from mksysb/mkcd media?

No other way to get into the box? (rsh, ssh, rcp, scp...)


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Breslau]

I believe you have to have the same ML on the boot media..."

that's correct. after i finally muddled through the spot update process, been a long time since i had done that on a NIM server, i was able to import the host's rootvg and change the password. should have known about the ML's.

thanks p5.